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DURST 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM, 


A  HISTORY 


IADIES'  TEMPERANCE  BENEVOLENT  SOCIETIES. 


<i  S!>e  stretcheth  out  her  hand  to  the  poor ;  yea,  she  reacheth  forth  her 
hands  to  the  needy." — Solomon*. 


BY 
LORENZO  D.  JOHNSON, 


NEW    YORK! 
PUBLISHED    BY  SAXTON   &    MILES, 

20  5    Broadway. 
BOSTON— SAXTON,  PEIRCE  &  CO. 

1843. 


Y 


..  . 

HARVARD  COUfB£/(lBRARY 
FROM  THE  j#R\OF 
GEORGE  0.  DEMP3E 


.  A\ 

Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1343f  by 

SAXTON  &  MILES, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


S.   W.   BKNEDIOT  &  CO  ,    PRINT. 


HIS 

Gift  of 

The  ?  of 

George  C  kJempttjr 


TO  MY   ESTEEMED  FRIEND, 

MRS.    ANN    MARIA  EGBERT, 

FIRST    DIRECTRESS     OF     THE 

FIRST   MARTHA   WASHINGTON    SOCIETY, 

AS    A   TOKEN   OF   RESFECT 

FOR   HER    DIGNIFIED   YET   UNASSUMING   AND 

CONCILIATORY     COURSE     AS     PRESIDING     OFFICER, 

FOR   HER   LOVE   OF   HUMANITY, 

HER   TENDER  REGARD  FOR  THE  UNFORTUNATE, 

AND  FOR  HER  SUCCESS  IN  RECLAIMING   THE   INTEMPERATE 

OF   HER    OWN   SEX, 

THIS  LITTLE   VOLUME  IS   RESPECTFULLY 

DEDICATED. 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS. 


The  Reader  will  perceive  that  in  tracing  the  rise  and  pro- 
gress of  Martha  Washingtonianism  it  has  formed  no  part 
of  our  plan  to  give  a  history  of  each  society.  To  detail  no- 
thing but  the  singular  cases  of  reformation  that  have  occur- 
red under  their  auspices  would  make  a  volume  that  could 
not  be  afforded  for  a  dollar,  instead  of  twenty-five  cents. 
We  have,  therefore,  taken  our  facts  mainly  from  one  so- 
ciety only,  and  so  far  as  the  history  of  this  society  is  pre- 
sented, it  is  giving  the  history  of  all  the  others ;  as  the  ob- 
ject and  the  work  are  the  same  in  all :  the  only  difference  lies 
in  the  amount  performed. 

Should  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  movements  of  our 
Ladies'  Temperance  Societies  deem  our  sentiments  tame  and 
common-place,  we  would,  in  anticipation,  reply,  that  it  was 
not  to  give  them  anything  new  that  this  book  was  written. 

The  writer's  chief  object  has  been  to  place  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  very  gravely  say,  (and  there  are  thousands  of 
them),  "  We  have  yet  to  learn  what  is  meant  by  a  Ladies' 
Temperance  society,  or  what  ladies  can  do  in  the  cause,"  a 
little  book  in  which  they  can  see,  as  in  a  mirror,  the 
work  go  on.  How  far  we  have  succeeded  in  accomplishing 
this  object  is  now  left  for  others  to  determine. 

New  York,  March  10th,  1843. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/marthawashingtonOOjohn 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 


PART   I. 

"  Alcohol,  the  foe  of  humanity,  is  the  demon  curse  of  the  domestic 
sphere,  the  murderer  of  countless  thousands  of  wives  and  mothers — that 
which  has  robbed  woman  of  her  beauty,  her  comforts,  her  rights,  her 
health,  her  home,  her  reason,  her  life.  The  tears  woman  has  shed,  would 
form  a  river;  the  groans  she  has  uttered,  collected  and  concentrated, 
would  be  louder  than  the  earthquake's  terrific  sound ;  and  if  funeral  ob- 
sequies were  to  be  in  proportion  to  the  ruin  and  wo  produced,  the  whole 
heavens  should  be  clad  in  sackcloth,  and  the  earth,  as  in  Egypt  in  the 
reign  of  Pharaoh,  should  have  her  days  of  mourning  and  darkness." 

Anonymous. 

Washingtonianism  had  its  origin  in  the  city  of 
Baltimore;  Martha  Washingtonianism,  in  New 
York.  While  we  find  an  imperishable  glory- 
fast  accumulating  around  the  fadeless  memory 
of  "  the  immortal  six,'1  for  having  founded  a  so- 
ciety, new  in  its  remarkable  adaptation  to  save  a 
class  of  men  who  were  nearly  lost  to  society, 
to  their  families,  and  to  themselves  ;  and  whom 
nearly  all  the  world  had  consigned  to  "  a  drunk- 


8  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

ard's  grave,"  the  names  of  Wra.  A.  Wisdom,  pre- 
sident of  the  first  "Washington  Temperance  Be- 
nevolent Society"  in  New  York,  John  W.  Oliver, 
and  many  of  their  co-laborers,  deserve  to  live  as 
long  in  story,  for  having  devised  the  plan  of 
bringing  out  so  all-potent  an  auxiliary  as  the 
Martha  Washington  Societies — without  whose 
aid  the  friends  of  temperance  would  now  despair 
of  seeing  the  temperance  cause  reach  the  glori- 
ous consummation  they  all  so  devoutly  hope  for. 

The  pioneers  of  Washingtonianism  in  New 
York  are  entitled  to  the  credit  of  pointing  out 
what  was,  in  connection  with  the  temperance 
cause,  the  appropriate  work  of  woman  to  per- 
form— a  work,  which  is  now  viewed  as  the  "bet- 
ter half"  of  this  great  moral  enterprise. 

It  was  when  this  little  band  of  reformed  Re- 
formers began  to  sally  forth  among  their  compa- 
nions in  dissipation  they  had  left  behind,  that 
they  became  impressed  that  "  it  was  not  good 
for  man  to  be  alone."  All  the  squalid  poverty 
they  had  witnessed  among  the  disconsolate  and 
almost  homeless  wives,  mothers  and  children, 
suggested  to  their  minds,  that  the  work  our  la 
dies'  societies  now  assign  to  their  wardrobe  com 
mittees,  would  give  new  vigor  and  life  to  hope. 
where  hope  was  almost  dead  ! 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  9 

Nor  were  the  ladies  backward  in  obeying  what 
they  deemed  to  be  a  call  of  Providence.  No 
sooner  did  they  see  that  demand  which  so  many 
half-clad  reformed  inebriates  made  on  their  hands, 
than  they  rallied,  and  were  found  at  the  laboring 
point.  Soon,  very  soon,  the  united  industry  and 
devotion  of  a  small  society  had  a  wardrobe, 
where  a  man,  coming  from  the  lowest  stage 
of  degradation  to  sign  the  pledge,  could  receive 
such  early  tokens  of  sympathy  as  would  enable 
him,  by  the  time  he  was  clothed  and  in  his  right 
mind,  to  appear  out  in  the  condition  of  a  respect- 
able candidate  for  any  place  of  industry  his  pre- 
vious trade  or  profession  had  qualified  him  to  fill. 
How  many  hundreds  have  received  such  timely 
aid  from  this  source,  but  for  which  they  might 
have  felt  it  impossible  to  rise,  will  only  be  known 
at  the  great  day  of  final  accounts. 

The  .first  ladies'  temperance  society,  formed  on 
the  principles  to  which  we  have  alluded,  was 
convened  on  the  12th  of  May,  1841,  in  the  church 
corner  of  Chrystie  and  Delancy  streets,  New 
York,  where  an  organization  was  consummated, 
by  adopting  an  appropriate  constitution,  and  sub- 
sequently, the  following  preamble  : 

"Whereas,  the  use  of  all  intoxicating  drinks 


10  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

has  caused,  and  is  causing,  incalculable  evils  to  • 
individuals  and  families,  and  has  a  tendency  to 
prostrate  all  means  adapted  to  the  moral,  social, 
and  eternal  happiness  of  the  whole  human  family  5 
we,  the  undersigned  ladies  of  the  city  of  New 
York,  feeling  ourselves  especially  called  upon, 
not  only  to  refrain  from  the  use  of  all  intoxicat- 
ing drinks,  but,  by  our  influence  and  example,  to 
induce  others  to  do  the  same,  do  therefore  form 
ourselves  into  an  association." 

In  the  language  of  this  preamble,  these  ladies, 
by  the  effectual  door  that  was  now  opened  where 
they  could  enter  into  the  service  of  humanity, 
and  be  avenged  on  the  foe  which  had  affiicted 
her  sex  with  such  untold  miseries,  felt  themselves 
"  called  upon  "  to  appear  at  their  posts  in  an  or- 
ganized phalanx,  and  stand  ready  to  do,  with  all 
their  might,  whatever  their  hands  and  their  hearts 
might  find  to  do.  To  obtain  funds,  and  increase 
their  membership,  were  the  first  things  that  de- 
manded attention ;  for  it  should  not  be  over- 
looked that  the  object  of  the  society  was  two- 
fold : — to  prevent  the  ravages  of  intemperance 
among  their  own  sex,  and  to  render  pecuniary 
aid  to  the  reformed  inebriates  and  their  families. 
To    accomplish   both    of  these    objects   at    the 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  11 

same  time,  it  was  required  that,  in  becoming 
a  constitutional  member,  they  must  not  only- 
sign  the  pledge,  but  pay  a  given  sum  on  being 
received  to  membership,  and  a  small  amount 
on  the  first  of  each  month  thereafter,  as  long  as 
they  remained  members  of  the  society.  This 
"  initiation  fee  "  and  the  monthly  dues,  together 
with  the  second-hand  clothing  which  every  mem- 
ber took  upon  herself  to  solicit,  soon  placed 
them  in  possession  of  means  to  furnish  a  ward- 
robe with  all  the  variety  of  clothing  that  any 
subject  of  their  commiseration  should  stand  in 
need  of.  The  wardrobe,  and  the  small  amount  of 
funds  which  they  frequently  found  it  necessary 
to  use  for  the  purchase  of  medicine,  and  the  pay- 
ment of  board  (for  some  one  who  was  passing 
the  transition  state),  at  once  made  them  an  in- 
dispensable auxiliary  to  the  Parent  Society.  It 
was  justly  said,  that,  as  in  the  case  of  Lazarus, 
who  by  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  was  raised 
from  the  dead,  and  for  whom  the  Savior  directed 
the  aid  of  human  hands  to  take  off  his  grave- 
clothes,  and  place  him  in  a  condition  to  walk, — 
so,  in  like  manner,  when  the  thrilling  and  soul- 
stirring  appeals  of  experience-telling  Washing- 
tonians  had  brought  many  a  man  from  the  grave 
of  inebriation  to  sign  the  pledge,  yet  now  he  had 


12  MARTHA    WASHIi\GTOr<IANISM. 

need  to  lay  off  his  "  filthy  rags  "  for  a  "  tetotal 
dress,"  before  he  could  seek  employment  with 
any  hope  of  success.  This  could  all  be  done  from 
the  wardrobe  of  the  ladies'  society.  How  many, 
by  receiving  such  aid,  have  been  encouraged  to 
successful  effort,  who,  had  it  not  been  for  such 
early  tokens  of  sympathy,  would  have  yielded 
to  discouragement  and  despair  in  the  outset,  the 
scenes  of  eternity  alone  will  reveal. 

The  real  good  that  the  society  performed  in 
restoring  individuals  and  families  to  self-respect 
and  usefulness,  soon  led  the  public  to  appreciate 
their  labors,  the  evidences  of  which  appeared  in 
donations  received,  as  well  as  in  the  increase  cf 
members.  In  the  reports  of  the  society  we  find 
the  following  notice. 

"  The  members  of  the  Martha  Washington  So- 
ciety gratefully  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the 
following  donations:  from  Dec.  1st,  1841,  to  Jan. 
1st,  1842,  including  just  one  month — from  Mr. 
John  Heeker,  $5  00  ;  from  Mrs.  Lovejoy,  a  bun- 
dle of  clothing,  also  several  from  Mrs.  Dr.  Osborn  ; 
from  G.  W.,  fourteen  seal  caps ;  two  gross  of 
buttons  -.  one  piece  of  handkerchiefs ;  one  dozen 
wool  hose  ;  one  lot  of  blue  cambricks  ;  one  dozen 
half  hose  ;  one  lot  of  bombazine,  one  piece  of 
plaid  camblet ;  one  piece  of  green  flannel ;  two 


MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANJSM.  13 

pieces  of  scarlet  flannel ;  one  piece  of  plaid  lin- 
sey  i  two  pieces  of  printed  satinet ;  one  piece  of 
mohair  ;  one  piece  of  broadcloth ;  one  piece  of 
4-4  prints ;  one  piece  of  bleached  muslin  5  one 
piece  of  blue  muslin  ;  one  piece  of  worked  mus- 
lin ;  one  piece  of  striped  prints ;  one  piece  of 
muslin-de-laine  ;  one  bale  of  wadding  $  two  bun- 
dles of  ladies' hoods  ;  one  dozen  spools  of  cot- 
ton \  and  three  hats." 

This  one  donation,  from  an  unknown  friend, 
must  have  been  worth  at  least  two  hundred  dollars. 
Such  were  some  of  the  demonstrations  that  the 
purposes  of  the  society  began  to  be  appreciated  by 
the  public. 

That  the  reader  may  have  same  tolerably  cor- 
rect view  of  the  work  these  ladies  were  perform- 
ing, we  will  quote  still  farther  from  the  Wardrobe 
Committee's  Keport :  K  Distributed  by  the  Relief 
Committee  of  the  Washington  Total  Abstinence 
Society  and  the  Wardrobe  Committee  of  the  Mar- 
tha Washington  Society,  from  Dec.  10th  to  Jan. ' 
10th,  twenty-seven  yards  of  muslin  ;  eleven  hats  ; 
twelve  pair  of  shoes ;  thirteen  vests  \  seven 
coats  ;  four  pair  of  shoes  ;  six  stocks  \  ten  pair 
of  pantaloons  5  two  jackets ;  seven  pair  of  boots  ; 
three  ladies'  hats  5  one  pair  gloves  ;  four  shirts  \ 


14?  MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM. 

three  dresses  ;  one  cap  ;  three  collars  5  one  hand* 
kerchief  ;  two  children's  dresses  ;  one  pair  of  sus- 
penders, and  twenty  shirts."  Although  the  re- 
port of  but  one  month,  this  is  quite  sufficient  to 
show  the  progress  of  the  Society,  when  it  is  add- 
ed that  the  increase  of  paying  members  averaged 
about  this  time,  rising  a  hundred  in  three  months. 
Were  we  to  give  even  a  clue  to  the  great  work 
which  the  Society  has  been  instrumental  in  effect- 
ing, in  redeeming  those  who  had  sunk  far  down 
in  the  misery  and  degradation  of  intemperance, 
we  fear  it  might  occupy  more  space  than  our 
limits  can  admit.  But  to  turn  habitations  of 
cruelty  into  homes  of  peace  and  plenty,  is  the 
work  which  God,  in  his  Providence,  has  given 
into  the  hands  of  the  Ladies',  as  well  as  the  Gen- 
tlemen's Societies,  to  perform  ;  and  should  it  be 
asked,  have  they  done  it  1  the  answer  can  best 
be  given  in  their  own  words.  The  following  are 
extracts  from  the  Report  of  the  Visiting  Commit- 
tee:— 

"  The  Visiting  Committee  wish  to  report  the  suc- 
cess which  has  attended  their  effort  in  reforming 
the  unfortunate  victims  of  inebriation,  and,  as  a 
case  in  point,  would  state,  for  the  gratification  of 
the  Society,  the  following  fact,  as  touching  one 
of  the  first  subjects  that  come  under  their  notice. 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  15 

More  than  two  months  ago  a  member  of  the 
Washington  Temperance  Society  found  in  the 
street  a  poor  victim  of  intemperance,  and  on  in- 
quiry found  she  was  from  one  of  our  eastern 
states,  in  an  entire  state  of  destitution.  The 
gentleman  immediately  took  the  case  in  hand, 
and,  through  his  exertion,  she  was  provided  for 
until  the  ensuing  meeting  of  your  society.    Your 

committee  learned  from  Mrs. that  she  has 

lived  in  respectable  families,  that  she  has  a  hus- 
band, to  join  whom  she  recently  came  to  this 
city,  he  having  written  to  her  for  that  purpose — 
failing  to  find  him  was  the  cause  of  all  her  mis- 
fortunes. Her  means  being  slender,  having  had 
little  more  than  sufficient  to  defray  her  expenses 
to  this  city,  she  was  obliged  to  procure  cheap 
accommodations.  Although  not  habitually  an  in- 
ebriate previously,  but  lodging  in  an  intemperate 
family  and  overwhelmed  with  disappointment, 
she  became  an  easy  victim  to  that  soul-destroy- 
ing evil,  as  was  to  be  expected.  The  sequel  is 
soon  told — while  her  means  lasted  she  was  wel- 
come ;  her  clothing  was  sold  piece  by  piece  un- 
til nothing  was  left,  when  she  was  informed  that 
she  could  no  longer  be  accommodated.  Mani- 
festing a  desire  to  reform,  she  was  taken  into  the 
family  of  one  of  the  members  and  provided  with 
a  change  of  clothing,  with  whom  she  remained 


16  MARTHA    WASHIjNGTOKIANISM. 

until  a  situation  was  procured  in  the  family  of  a 
respectable  physician,  where  she  has  continued 
,  ever  since,   discharging  the  duties  of  her  office 
with  perfect  satisfaction." 

"  In  the  course  of  my  visitation,  as  a  member 
of  the  Martha  Washington  Society,  I   found  in 

street  a  woman  in  a  most  pitiable  condition, 

wTith  lier  two  children,  the  one  eight  and  the 
other  four  years  old.  The  habitation  was  truly 
the  abode  of  wretchedness  and  misery,  and  my 
heart  sickened  at  the  sight  of  the  wretched 
mother  with  scarcely  sufficient  clothing  to  cover 
her  person,  and  I  involuntarily  exclaimed,  '  is  it 
possible  that  immortal  beings,  created  to  glorify 
their  Maker,  can  be  thus  degraded  1  has  human 
nature  sunk  so  low  1  The  mother  being  detained 
at  home  for  want  of  clothing,  the  children  were 
sent  daily  to  beg,  which  afforded  them  a  scanty 
subsistence.  The  case  appeared  almost  hopeless  ; 
but  remembering  that  '  the  more  desperate  the 
case,  the  more  need  of  exertions,'  we  were  en- 
couraged to  make  an  effort,  which,  happily  for 
her  and  for  society,  proved  eminently  successful ; 
clothing  was  provided  her,  she  attended  our 
meeting,  signed  the  pledge,  and  was  placed  in 
the  family  of  one  of  our  members,  where  she 
gave  strong  proof  of  reformation.  A  situation 
has   since   been  procured  in  the  country,  from 


MARTHA    WASHINGT0N1ANISM.  17 

whence  intelligence  has  been  received  of  her 
possessing  the  entire  confidence  of  her  employer. 

"At  the  mention  of  the  Martha  Washington 
Temperance  Society,  tears  of  gratitude  flowed 
from  her  eyes — despair  is  driven  from  her  coun- 
tenance, and  she  appears  truly  clothed  in  her 
right  mind.  Her  children  have  been  also  pro- 
vided with  comfortable  homes  under  the  care  of 
the  Society,  and  our  hearts  ascend  in  prayer  to 
God  that  their  path  through  life  may  be  that  of 
the  just  that  c  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day.' 

"  Another  is  that  of  a  woman  who  called  on  one 
of  our  ladies  one  month  ago.  and  informed  her  of 
her  wretched  condition  from  the  effects  of  intem- 
perance ;  and  that  her  husband  as  well  as  herself 
was  intemperate.  They  had  raised  a  family  of 
children,  most  of  whom  had  abandoned  their  pa- 
rents on  account  of  the  disgrace  attendant  on 
their  mode  of  living.  After  attending  our  meet- 
ing she  signed  the  pledge.  A  situation  was 
procured  for  her,  where  she  gives  entire  satis- 
faction ;  having  entirely  renounced  her  former 
habits. 

"  At  another  time  I  called  on  a  family  whose 
situation  was  truly  deplorable  ;  the  whole  appear- 
ance of  the  house  said  plainly,  this  is  the  abode 
of  him  who  "tarries  long  at  the  wine."  The 
-2* 


18  MARTHA    WASH1NGT0NIANISM. 

wretched  man  could  not  be  prevailed  on  to  sign  the 
pledge,  although  many  inducements  were  held 
out  to  him;  he  said  our  motives  were  selfish,  and 
the  temperance  cause  a  money-making  concern. 
But  God  can  work  by  instruments  that  man 
would  despise.  He  can  clothe  the  wretched  ine- 
briate and  restore  him  to  his  right  mind.  We 
trust  that  the  friends  of  temperance  will  raise 
their  hearts  and  voices  in  prayer,  that  the  work 
may  not  cease  until  the  mourning  of  the 

"  broken-hearted  widows 

Arid  the  orphan's  bitter  cry," 

shall  no  longer  be  heard,  but  the  songs  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving  be  upon  every  tongue." 

The  following  fact  was  furnished  by  the  First 
Directress  of  the  Martha  Washington  Society. 

"THE  RECLAIMED. 

"About  17  months  since,  a  woman  called  on 
me  for  the  purpose  of  signing  the  pledge.  She 
proved  to  be  an  old  acquaintance,  and  the  mother 
of  a  girl  who  had  lived  in  my  family  about  ten 
years  since.  She  had  been  intemperate  for  twenty 
years,  during  the  greater  part  of  which  time  she 
had  been  separated  from  her  family ;  sometimes 
performing  the  menial  offices  of  the  kitchen,  but 
oftener  a  wretched  outcast,  without  home  or 
friends. 


MARTHA    WASHTNGTONIANISM.  19 

"  After  the  mutual  surprise  had  somewhat  sub- 
sided, she  said,  she  had  been  directed  to  me  to 
sign  the  pledge.  On  being  asked  if  she  was  liv- 
ing with  her  family,  she  replied  that  she  was  not, 
and  that  she  supposed  they  knew  not  whether 
she  was  dead  or  alive  ;  she  stated  that  she  had 
no  home,  but  that  a  Washingtonian,  a  reformed 
man,  who  had  himself  experienced  the  good 
effects  of  signing  the  pledge,  had,  though  very 
poor,  given  her  a  shelter,  and  urged  her  to  go 
and  sign  it  also,  lending  her  his  own  shoes  for  the 
purpose. 

cl  At  the  next  meeting  of  our  Society  she  signed 
the  Pledge  and  Constitution.  A  sum,  less  than 
two  dollars,  was  expended  for  her.  A  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  wanting  help,  she  obtained 
immediate  employment,  and  in  one  week  from 
that  time  came  to  the  Society  and  took  part  in 
the  sewing,  and  was  delighted  at  the  happy 
change  in  her  condition. 

"  She  continued  to  live  in  that  family  for  several 
months,  during  which  time  her  children,  seeing 
the  permanency  of  her  reformation,  took  her 
once  more  into  their  confidence  and  affection. 
The  husband,  too,  who  had  long  since  given  her 
up  as  a  hopeless  case,  and  who  was  himself 
deemed  by  his  friends  scarcely  less  hopeless, 
became  interested  in  the  Washingtonian  move- 


20  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANtSMi 

ments,  signed  the  pledge,  and  became  a  reformed 
man. 

"  This  reformed  couple,  who  had  scarcely  lived 
together  for  twenty  years,  are  now  joined  again, 
and  with  their  children  are  keeping  house  in 
this  city,  each  endeavoring  to  render  the  other 
happy. 

"  To  those  who  doubt  the  propriety  or  utility 
of  Ladies'  Temperance  Benevolent  Societies,  I 
would  commend  to  their  attention  the  above 
facts.  In  her  wretched  and  destitute  condition, 
to  whom  could  she  have  appealed  had  there  been 
no  similar  association  1  These  societies  look 
upon  the  inebriate,  not  as  hopeless  members  of 
society,  but  in  all  their  degradation  they  point 
them  to  the  pledge.  Their  language  to  them  is, 
"  Sign  that  pledge,  and  adhere  to  its  principles, 
and  we  will  be  your  friends."  It  is  kind  words 
and  kind  treatment  that  melt  the  drunkard's 
heart.  Such  facts  are  full  of  encouragement 
to. every  Ladies'  Society  to  persevere  in  the  be- 
nevolent design  of  their  associations." 

The  above  selections  are  not  made  as  contain- 
ing the  most  remarkable  cases  of  reformation 
which  have  occurred,  or  which  have  been  report- 
edi;  but  they  are  thrown  in  to  help  the  reader  to 
some  notion  of  the  wonderful  work  which  we  are 
permitted  to  witness  in  this  labor  of  humanity. 


MARTHA    WASHINGTOMAiMISM.  21 

The  name  of  the  Society  would  not  appear  ap- 
propriate at  first  view,  only,  as  associated  with 
that  of  Washington's,  whose  name  the  reformed 
inebriates  of  Baltimore  had  taken.  But  when  we 
learn  the  real  character  of  Mrs.  Washington,  there 
seems  to  be  a  greater  fitness  in  the  selection  of 
her  name  than  we  might  at  first  imagine.  The 
partner  of  the  immortal  Washington,  for  forty 
years  the  sharer  of  his  joys  and  sorrows,  pre- 
sents not  in  her  public  character  more  than  in 
her  private  virtues,  a  fit  model  for  the  Societies 
which  have  adopted  her  name.  In  writing  of  this 
lady,  her  biographer  says : — "  To  her  intimate 
acquaintances  and  to  the  nation,  the  charac- 
ter of  Mrs.  Washington  was  ever  a  theme  of 
praise.  Affable  and  courteous  in  her  deportment, 
remarkable  for  her  deeds  of  charity  and  piety, 
unostentatious  and  without  vanity,  she  adorned 
by  her  domestic  virtues  the  sphere  of  private  life, 
and  filled  with  dignity  every  station  in  which  she 
was  placed."  Unlike  the  great  majority,  however, 
of  benevolent  individuals,  Mrs.  Washington  had 
an  ample  fortune,  from  which  she  could  draw,  to 
gratify  her  love  of  doing  good  in  deeds  of  charity. 
But  were  we  to  look  at  her  as  a  model  for 
imitation  by  our  Ladies'  Temperance  Benevo- 
lent Societies,  we  might  find  even  in  the  abun- 
dance of  her  r  esources   not  so  foreign   a    trait 


22  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

from  the  character  of  our  Ladies'  Societies. 
Although  composed  mostly  of  women  whose 
earthly  comforts  are  derived  mainly  from  the 
labor  of  their  own  hands,  yet  the  abundance  of 
their  resources  for  doing  the  good  they  propose, 
constitutes  their  chief  excellence.  It  has  too 
long  been  supposed  that  the  laboring  classes,  and 
"  poor  people"  especially,  do  not  possess  the 
means,  and  in  fact  are  not  the  proper  persons,  to 
engage  in  benevolent  enterprises — thus,  a  great 
majority  of  the  poor  themselves  believed.  The 
all-pervading  opinion  has  been,  that  if  anything  in 
the  form  of  pecuniary  good  works  were  to  be 
done,  it  must  be  left  to  those  who  are  blessed 
with  the  abundance  of  this  world's  goods.  How 
many  of  those  who  have  had  but  limited  means, 
have  felt  themselves  entirely  excused  from  en- 
gaging in  deeds  of  charity,  because  they  saw 
neighbors  around  them  so  much  more  able  to 
do  than  they,  thus  excuse  themselves,  and  refer 
it  to  a  class  who  might  be  wanting  in  the  in- 
clination to  give  ;  and  thus  the  work  is  entirely 
neglected.  But  a  new  era  has  dawned  upon  us, 
and  sent  forth  broad-cast  upon  the  face  of  socie- 
ty, the  new  truth,  that  all,  all  classes  of  human 
beings,  irrespective  entirely  of  what  they  indi- 
vidually possess,  may  share  in  the  luxury  of  doing 
good— that  all,  in  their  turn,  may  prove  the  truth 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  23 

of  holy  writ,  that  "  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than 
to  receive.''  All  that  appears  paradoxical  in  this 
assertion  is  obviated,  when  we  see  those  who  have 
but  little  or  nothing  themselves  to  give,  associate 
together  in  societies,  where  they  can  turn  to  some 
good  account,  a  little  portion  of  time  or  the  ser- 
vice of  their  hands,  either  in  work,  or  visiting 
the  poor — carryings  the  means  of  relief,  as  ap- 
pointed by  the  society.  And  in. this  work,  what  a 
grand  opportunity  is  presented  for  imparting  that 
which  is  sometimes  more  valuable,  and,  perhaps, 
needed  more  than  food  or  clothing,  namely  ;  kind 
words,  good  advice,  and  signs  of  real  sympathy  ! 
With  such  a  field  of  labor,  and  with  such  means 
of  usefulness  made  accessible  alike  to  all,  many 
kind  spirits  have  risen  up  and  attained  to  great 
usefulness,  who,  until  such  facilities  brought  them 
out,  were  unknown  to  society,  or  not  known  at 
least,  as  possessing  any  more  interest  for  the 
miserable  and  the  vicious  around  them  than 
others.  It  is  a  glorious  fact  that  all  may  be  kind, 
all  may  do  good  ;  may  cultivate  good  will  and 
unfeigned  sympathy  to  the  degraded  and  the  un- 
fortunate of  their  race  ;  and  with  such  feelings, 
who  will  fail  to  be  useful  %  It  is  this  that  affords 
an  inexhaustible  resource  for  doing  good,  and  it  is 
this  that  makes  a  true  Martha  Washington  Soci- 
ety, like  Mrs.  Martha  Washington,  never  without 


24  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

the  means  of  affording  relief,  and  making  them- 
selves "  remarkable  for  their  deeds  of  charity 
and  piety." 

Soon  after  the  organization  of  the  Martha 
Washington  Society,  the  parent  society  to  which 
the  ladies  became  auxiliary,  rented  the  large  hall 
in  the  Dispensary,  at  the  corner  of  White  and 
Centre  Streets,  where  both  societies  have  con- 
tinued to  meet  weekly  until  the  present  time,  and 
where  a  clerk  is  daily  employed  in  administering 
the  pledge,  and  attending  to  whatever  business 
may  devolve  upon  him  relating  to  the  cause. 
The  time  when  the  Ladies'  Society  meet,  is  so  ex- 
tensively known  among  the  poor  females  of  that 
neighborhood,  that  it  has  become  a  scene  worth 
witnessing  to  see  how  many  of  the  unfortunate 
daughters  of  misery  and  woe,  will  flock  to  the 
place  where  they  learn  that  the  voice  of  kindness 
is  to  be  heard,  giving  aid  and  counsel  in  tones  of 
tenderness.  Mothers  are  to  be  met  there,  with 
little  half-clad  and  half-fed  children  by  their  side, 
who  are  driven  to  their  wits'  end  to  keep  soul 
and  body  together,  while  the  husband  and  father 
is  the  source  of  their  greatest  earthly  troubles, 
and  even  terror.  Women,  also,  are  to  be  met 
there,  on  whose  faces  broods  dark  despair,  pro- 
duced by  "woes  too  wide  to  see  beyond," 
which  they  have  brought  upon  themselves  by  the 


MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM.  25 

use  of  intoxicating  drink  !  In  marking  the  rise 
and  progress  of  the  Martha  Washington  Socie- 
ties, we  have  thus  far  followed  the  movements  of 
the  first  society  in  the  field — not  because  it  fur- 
nishes so  much  more  efficiency  now  than  many 
others  which  have  sprung  up  all  around  it  ;  but 
because  it  is  the  first  society,  and  has  furnished 
the  first  examples  of  success  in  rescuing  and  sav- 
ing the  intemperate  women — the  first  society 
organized  to  aid  reformed  inebriates  and  their 
destitute  families,  until  they  could  aid  themselves 
— the  first  Ladies'  Society  that  demonstrated  to 
the  world  that  kind  words  and  deeds  will  do  more 
to  reform  and  elevate  even  the  vicious  poor  than 
bolts  and  bars  ever  did,  than  the  strong  arm  of 
the  law  ever  can  do — the  first  female  society  that 
has  proved  that  "  there  is  a  chord  even  in  the 
most  corrupt  heart  that  vibrates  to  kindness." 
The  objects  and  principles  of  this  society  needed 
only  to  be  known  in  order  to  be  appreciated. 
Ladies  in  other  parts  of  the  city  were  not  slow 
in  perceiving,  that  the  same  work  was  to  be 
done,  the  same  objects  to  be  accomplished,  in 
every  direction,  which  were  proposed  by  this  so- 
ciety. Not  long  subsequent  to  the  first  organiza- 
tion being  known,  an  efficient  society  sprang 
up,  embracing  precisely  the  same  objects,  call- 
ed the  "Lady  Howard  Society,"  thus  very  dis- 
3 


26  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

tinctly  signifying  their  object  by  the  name  they 
adopted  ; — and  not  a  whole  year  had  expired 
before  there  were  similar  societies  organized  in 
every  ward  in  New  York,  and  for  aught  we  know, 
in  nearly  every  county  at  least,  in  the  northern, 
middle,  and  western  states  of  the  Union.  The 
press  bore  a  noble  part  in  this  work — all  the  Tem- 
perance papers  in  New  York  at  once  recognized 
and  advocated  the  happy  adaptation  of  these  so- 
cieties to  sustain  and  encourage  on  the  Washing- 
tonian  Reform.  From  a  conviction  that  female 
influence  must  be  brought  to  bear  in  a  more  effi- 
cient manner,  a  semi-monthly  paper  called  "  The 
Olive  Plant  and  Ladies'  Temperance  Advocate," 
was  commenced  for  the  purpose  of  advocating 
the  importance  of  Female  Temperance  Societies. 
The  first  number  was  published  almost  simulta- 
neously with  the  organization  of  the  Martha  Wash- 
ington Society.  Mrs.  Steele,  author  of  the 
"  Heroines  of  Sacred  History,"  wrote  for  its  col- 
umns "  An  Appeal  to  the  Ladies  of  America." 
This  number  was  stereotyped,  and  as  funds  were 
obtained,  copies  of  it  were  sent  through  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  Some  of  the 
most  gifted  lady-writers  in  this  country  contri- 
buted to  its  pages — all  tending  to  show  what  the 
fair  sex  can  do  to  avert  the  evils  and  calamities 
growing  out  of  the  fashionable  custom  of  using 


MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM.  27 

intoxicating  drink,  which  she  had  taken  so  active 
a  part  in  sanctioning,  if  not  in  introducing  far  and 
wide  through  the  community.  And  no  paper 
which  has  taken  any  part  in  the  great  interests  of 
humanity  has  been  silent  on  this  subject — until 
the  whole  people  are  apprised  that  Woman  is 
awakening  from  the  slumber  of  ages  to  destroy 
those  viperous  evils  that  have  so  long  lived  and 
fattened  on  the  very  life-blood  of  society ;  but 
which  are  by  no  means  too  mighty  for  her  mild, 
yet  Herculean  influence  to  destroy.* 

a  Till  Hymen  brought  his  love-delighted  hour, 

There  dwelt  no  joy  in  Eden's  rosy  bower ! — 

In  vain  the  viewless  seraph  lingering  there 

At  starry  midnight,  charmed  the  silent  air ; 

In  vain  the  wild  bird  carolled  on  the  steep, 

To  hail  the  sun  slow  wheeling  from  the  deep; 

In  vain  to  soothe  the  solitary  shade, 

iErial  notes  in  mingling  murmurs  played  ; 

The  summer  wind  that  shook  the  spangled  tree, 

The  whispering  wave,  the  murmur  of  the  bee ; 

Still  slowly  passed  the  melancholy  day, 

And  still  the  stranger  wist  not  where  to  stray. 

The  world  was  sad ;  the  garden  was  a  wild ; 

And  man  the  hermit,  sighed — till  woman  smiled !" 


PART  II. 

THE  DESIGN    OF   MARTHA  WASHINGTONIANISM. 

Allow  me  to  urge  on  all,  the  importance  of  devoting  some  portion  of 
their  time  in  inspecting,  as  well  as  of  their  property  in  relieving,  the  dis- 
tresses of  the  poor.  Robert  Hall. 

The  design  of  these  Societies  is  as  yet  but  im- 
perfectly understood.  When  it  is  seen  that  they 
meet  weekly  for  making  and  distributing  gar- 
ments among  the  poor,  and  the  various  methods 
employed  to  raise  funds,  it  might  be  inferred  that 
they  are  only  another  class  of  charitable  or  relief 
Societies.  But  such  is  not  the  fact.  First  of  all, 
they  are  Temperance  Societies.  Yes,  these  ladies 
felt  that  they  wanted  all  the  moral  obligations  of 
the  Pledge  in  arraying  their  influence  against  a 
custom  which  their  sex  had  done  so  much  to 
sanction  in  the  community.  They  are,  then, 
Temperance  Societies,  as  thoroughly  as  though 
they  had  no  other  object  in  view  but  to  aid  and 
encourage  each  other  to  practice  total  abstinence 
from  all  intoxicating  drink.  But  they  are  also 
benevolent  Societies  ;  and  to  accomplish  their 
purposes,  they  tax  themselves  with  the  payment 
of  a  small  sum  of  money  monthly,  besides  what 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  29 

they  contribute  of  clothing",  and  time  devoted  to 
labor  and  visitations.  But  it  is  not  their  design 
to  aid  the  poor,  simply  because  they  are  poor.  If 
they  did  this,  many  an  unfortunate  family  might 
present  their  claims  for  aid,  who  are  equally  as 
respectable  as  themselves.  In  such  a  case  it 
would  not  be  the  object  to  improve  the  character 
of  the  persons  they  aid,  but  simply  their  condi- 
tion. But  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  La- 
dies' Temperance  Societies  is,  that  they  employ 
their  charities,  not  to  give  relief  merely,  but  to 
improve  the  life  of  the  person  they  aid.  They 
make  their  charities  a  powerful  lever  in  their 
hands  for  raising  the  individual  with  whom  they 
communicate  to  better  habits  and  to  an  improved 
state  of  mind  and  feelings.  It  is  easy  to  see  that, 
going  to  a  person  now  so  depressed  with  poverty 
as  to  be  almost  destitute  of  the  soul-inspiring  in- 
fluence of  hope,  and  so  low  as  to  see  no  way  by 
which  he  can  return  to  respectable  associations, 
— and  say  to  such,  "  Change  your  habits  and  your 
company,  leave  your  haunts  of  dissipation,  and 
we  will  aid  you" — in  the  language  of  inspira- 
tion, "  Come  thou  with  us,  and  we  will  do  thee 
good" — come  into  our  Society,  be  one  of  us,  and 
assume  your  claim  to  respectability  again.  This 
gives  to  the  person  we  would  reform,  evidence  of 
our  sincerity  :  it  is  doincr  "  in  deed  and  in 
3* 


30  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

truth,"  as  well  as  in  "  word  and  in  tongue. >? 
Some  have  labored  to  find  an  objection  to  this 
course,  because  it  makes  an  appeal  to  their  self- 
ishness, coincides  with  their  interest,  and  offers 
a  premium  for  hypocrisy.  But  this  is  an  ob- 
jection hardly  deserving  a  reply  ;  for  if  there 
should  be  here  and  there  an  instance  where  a 
person  was  so  ,ow  as  to  hide  his  evil  designs 
under  the  cloak  of  a  pretension  to  reform,  for 
the  sake  of  "  the  loaves  and  fishes,"  such  cases 
will  always  be  "  few  and  far  between."  Go  to 
most  persons,  however  low  and  brutalized  their 
habits  may  have  made  them,  and  convince  them 
by  whatever  means,  only  convince  them,  that  you 
are  kind — that  you  have  their  good  in  view — and 
all  the  better  feelings  of  their  natures  are  at  once 
aroused,  and  brought  into  exercise. 

How  many  delightful  demonstrations  have 
Washingtonians  and  Martha  Washin^tonians  had 
of  this  fact  1  How  many  habitations  of  cruelty 
have  been  turned  into  homes  of  peace  and  plenty, 
— how  many  who  were  almost  fiends  in  human 
form,  have  been  restored,  by  the  unmistaken 
voice  of  kindness  and  sympathy,  to  all  the  feel- 
ings and  appearances  of  a  man,  a  husband,  and 
father — a  woman,  a  wife,  a  mother  !  We  are 
witnesses  of  these  things. 

Instead,  then,  of  the  aid  that  Martha  Washing- 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  31 

I  tonians  afford,  being  viewed  as  an  end — like  the 
I  aid  bestowed  by  most  charitable  societies,  who 
i  combine  simply  to  relieve  the  distressed — it 
I  should  be  viewed  as  a  means  through  which  to 
gain  an  end,  namely,  the  reformation  of  the  per- 
son aided. 

It  is  understood  that  many  persons  of  wealth 
impart  pecuniary  aid  as  a  condescension  on  their 
part,  never  expecting  that  it  will  have  any  other 
influence,  or  effect  any  other  moral  ends,  than 
simply  to  lay  the  receiver  under  some  sort  of  ob- 
ligation to  the  donor — nothing  being  farther 
from  their  purpose  than  to  make  their  charities 
serve  to  elevate  the  recipient  into  the  same 
scale  of  social  life  with  themselves.  To  re- 
lieve immediate  distress  without  an  effort  to 
effect  a  reform,  then,  is  the  object  of  the  do- 
nor. This  is  the  ultimate  design  of  many  cha- 
ritable societies  also.  Not  so  the  Martha  Wash- 
ington Societies.  Their  alms  are  all  designed  to 
accomplish  moral  ends.  Hence  you  wrill  find 
their  visiting  committees  going  most  frequently 
"  two  and  two,"  like  the  Apostles  of  old,  looking 
into  the  dark  corners  of  our  towns  and  cities, 
into  the  damp  cellars  and  open  garrets,  to  find 
those  whose  poverty  and  suffering  they  can  con- 
trol, by  pointing  out  to  them  a  more  excellent 
way  of  living,  and  encouraging  them  to  walk  in 


2  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

it,  by  offering  them  pecuniary  aid.  They  go 
forth  with  hearts  full  of  good  will  towards  even 
the  vicious  poor,  a  class  heretofore  almost  en- 
tirely passed  by,  as  not  the  proper  objects  of  at- 
tention, much  less  of  charity.  Yet  Martha 
Washingtonians  restrict  themselves  to  aid  none 
except  such  as  sign  the  pledge  of  total  absti- 
nence. And  in  this  way  they  find  enough  to  do. 
As  an  evidence  of  their  success  we  have  only  to 
point  to  an  "  exceeding  great  army,"  whose  con- 
dition was  once  as  unpromising  as  were  those  in 
the  Valley,  on  whom  the  prophet  looked,  when 
he  exclaimed,  "  Can  these  bones  live  %n 

But  there  is  another  view  which  we  are  to 
take  of  the  design  of  these  institutions.  Their 
efforts  are  adapted  to  promote  the  greatest  good 
of  the  greatest  number.  Instead  of  building 
costly  asylums,  and  taking  here  and  there  one 
from  among  the  many,  out  of  society,  to  a  re- 
treat, and  leaving  hundreds  behind  equally  as 
deserving  of  sympathy  as  those  who  happen 
to  be  the  sharers  of  their  favors,  the  Martha 
Washingtonian  system  proposes  going  into  the 
community,  and  making  the  inebriate's  home  a 
house  of  reformation,  and  then  an  asylum,  per- 
chance, to  those  who  may  be  saved  through  their 
instrumentality.  Instead  of  taking  them  from 
home  to  reform  them,  they  would  reach  them  at 


MARTHA    WASH1NGTONIAN1SM.  33 

home,  and  thereby  make  home  what  it  should  be. 
It  then  becomes  a  practical,  rather  than  a  theo- 
retical reformation. 

We  are  aware  that  this  method  requires  much 
more  of  time  and  'personal  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  individuals  engaged  in  the  work,  than  simply 
to  give  money,  and  pay  a  matron  at  an  asylum ; 
therefore  while  it  is  less  expensive,  it  is  more 
useful.  It  is  the  purpose  of  Martha  Washingto- 
nians  to  do  a  great  deal  of  good  with  a  Utile  mo- 
ney, by  making  up  the  deficiency  of  funds  in  the 
labor  of  their  hands,  and  their  regular  visitations 
among  those  whom  they  are  laboring  to  save. 
Whoever  shall  visit  one  of  the  weekly  working 
meetings  of  our  Ladies'  Societies,  will  find  a 
portion  of  the  time  devoted  to  hearing  reports 
from  the  visiting  committees,  appointed  at  the 
previous  meeting :  for  the  motto  of  the  society 
with  which  all  persons  are  met,  applying  for  aid, 
is,  "Give  us  your  name  to  the  pledge,  your  street 
and  number,  and  let  us  visit  you,  then  we  will 
aid  you  5"  and  this  aid  is  given  out  according  to 
the  judgment  of  the  committee  who  have  inves- 
tigated the  case.  We  would  not  be  understood 
to  signify  by  these  remarks  that  asylums  are  not 
useful :  far  otherwise.  They  are  no  doubt  worth 
all  they  cost,  and  infinitely  more. 

We  are  personally  acquainted  with  an  asylum, 


34        •  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

the  annual  expenses  of  which  are  not  less  than 
$2400,  and  we  have  never  seen  twenty  inmates 
there  at  one  time  5  yet  in  that  asylum  has  been 
saved,  a  class  of  persons,  who,  according  to  all 
human  calculation,  would  never  have  been  saved 
in  any  other  way,  had  they  not  been  brought  to 
that  place.  We  say  saved;  for,  persons  have 
been  brought  to  that  asylum,  who  were  the  very 
ministers  of  sin,  and  there  they  have  reformed 
and  there  died  in  the  triumphs  of  God's  pardon- 
ing mercy  and  grace.  But  all  this  does  not 
prove  that  other  institutions  are  not  better  adapt- 
ed to  the  reformation  of  the  great  mass  who  will 
never  be  redeemed  from  vice,  if  they  are  to  wait 
until  visited  by  the  managers  of  an  asylum.  In 
comparison  with  the  results  of  Martha  Wash- 
ingtonianism  it  seems  like  doing  a  little  good  at 
great  expense,  instead  of  a  great  deal  of  good 
with  small  means.  As  to  Orphan  Asylums,  we 
venture  the  assertion,  that  should  the  cause  of 
Temperance  triumph,  and  dissipation  cease  from 
among  us,  they  will  be  as  tenantless  as  some  of 
our  County  Jails  where  the  traffic  of  alcoholic 
liquors  has  ceased.  We  have  recently  learned 
that,  since  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks  has 
diminished  to  such  an  unprecedented  degree 
in  Baltimore,  children  have  been  taken  by 
scores  from  the  Orphan  Asylum.     Between  forty 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  35 

and  fifty  were  called  for  by  reformed  parents  and 
relatives  last  year.  Precisely  the  same  result 
has  been  reported  from  Philadelphia,  and  other 
places  where  Orphan  Asylums  have,  at  a  great 
expense,  been  established.  We  believe  that  when 
the  community  are  brought  back  to  a  state  of  so- 
briety and  industry,  there  will  not  be  found  any 
more  homeless  and  orphan  children  than  would 
be  gladly  provided  for,  bv  the  yearly  demand  for 
them  in  those  families  which  are  destitute  of  chil- 
dren by  death  or  other  causes 

But  let  us  look  at  the  moral  bearing  of  this 
method.  See  what  pity,  what  tenderness,  what 
anxious  concern  it  creates  in  the  hearts  of  the 
visitors  themselves.  We  know  of  more  than  one 
First  Directress  of  a  society,  whose  whole  mind, 
and  nearly  the  whole  of  whose  time,  is  absorbed  in 
inventing  and  prosecuting  plans  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  those  persons  m  whose  reformation  they 
have  reason  to  hope.  Nor  arc  the  principal  offi- 
cers alone  in  this.  There  are  scores  of  ladies  who 
were  once  in  the  habit  of  regarding  this  kind  of 
human  misery  with  apparent  apathy,  in  times 
when  they  knew  not  what  ladies  could  do  in  the 
cause  of  temperance,  who  are  now  alive  with  in- 
terest, and  industrious  in  their  plans  for  doing 
good.  And  it  is  yet  to  us  a  problem  as  to  who 
in  the  aggregate,  will  receive  the  greatest  gain, — 


36  MAPwTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

those  who  give  and  labor,  or  those  who  receive. 
What  still  greatly  improves  this  picture  is,  that 
hundreds  of  women  who,  from  their  limited 
means,  never  expected  to  know  the  luxury  of  do- 
ing- good,  with  their  earthly  substance,  have  had, 
by  uniting  in  these  Ladies'  Societies,  a  set  of 
kindly  and  humane  feelings  drawn  forth  into  use- 
ful exercise,  which  has  greatly  elevated  them 
into  the  possession  of  all  that  is  noble  and  gene- 
rous, all  that  is  amiable  and  lovely,  all  that 
is  to  be  admired  in  the  gentle  and  tender  graces 
of  woman's  nature.  In  the  spirit  of  "  Mercy's 
angels,"  they  go  out  as  the  Almoners  of  their  so- 
ciety, realizing  the  full  force  of  the  Apostle's 
doctrine  that  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive;"  until  "  benevolence  becomes  a  prevail- 
ing habit  of  the  mind,  and  its  exertions  make  up  a 
part  of  the  cares  and  toils  of  life."  Were  it  not 
for  their  connection  with  these  societies,  many 
would  remain  strangers  to  those  delicious  emo- 
tions which  the  benevolent  Author  of  our  nature 
has  implanted  in  us,  to  prompt  us  to  relieve  the 
distresses  of  our  fellow  beings.  We  are  convinced 
that  this  method  of  administering  no  relief  with- 
out first  personally  investigating  the  case  by 
visiting  the  objects  in  their  own  abode,  has  the 
tendency  to  cherish  an  habitual  tenderness  which 
exceedingly  heightens  the  pleasures  of  our  exist- 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  37 

i  ence,  while  it  forms  a  protection  against  impo- 
sitions, which  some  practise  merely  to  obtain  a 
i  subsistence  without  labor. 


From  the  Olive  Plant. 

WOMAN'S  PART  IN  THE  TEMPERANCE  REFORMATION. 

BY  MRS.  E.  C*  STEADMAN  (NOW  MRS.  KENNEY.) 

Say  not  that  woman's  voice 

Must  stay  its  silvery  note, 
While  the  far  hills  and  vales  rejoice, 

And  on  each  breeze,  doth  float 
Glad  tidings,  from  the  field, 

Where  Temperance  armies  stand, 
Against  king  Alcohol,  to  wield 

The  sword,  wTith  fearless  hand 

Let  woman,  too,  rejoice, 

To  see  the  foe  recede  ; 
And  let  her  in  the  l  still,  small  voice/ 

The  cause  of  Temperance  plead : 
And  while  the  thunder-tone 

Of  eloquence  is  stirred  ; 
Her  whispered-warning  God  may  own— 

His  voice,  through  hers  be  heard, 
4 


38  MARTHA    WASKINGTOMANISM, 

Say  not,  that  woman's  heart 

Its  fulness  must  contain  ; 
Nor  from  Compassion's  fount,  impart 

To  other  hearts  again  : 
For  since  her  sex  hath  shared 

The  evils  of  the  foe  ; 
Let  not  her  sympathy  be  spared, 

Where  yet  is  felt  his  blow. 

Say  not,  that  woman's  hand 

For  Temperance  hath  no  power — 
That  she  must  meek  spectator  stand, 

In  Reformation's  hour : 
Behold,  in  garments  made, 

What  woman  now  hath  wrought ! 
How  is  th'  inebriate's  home  arrayed 

In  comforts  she  hath  brought ! 

See  how  the  gentle  band 

Of  sisters,  onward  move — 
How  in  one  cause,  have  heart  and  hand, 

United  works  with  love  ! 
Go  on — do  what  ye  can  ; 

And  as  by  Eden's  laws, 
Woman  must  be  l  help-meet  for  man/ 

So,  in  the  Temperance  cause. 

Cedar  Bkook,  August,  1841. 


PART    III. 

CAPABILITIES    OF    MARTHA    WASHINGTONIAN- 
ISM. 

"  As  a  vine  which  has  long  twined  its  graceful  foliage  about  the  oak, 
and  been  lifted  by  it  into  sunshine,  will,  when  the  hardy  plant  is  riven  by 
the  thunderbolt,  cling  around  it  with  its  caressing  tendrils,  and  bind  up  its 
shattered  boughs ;  so  is  it  beautifully  ordered  by  Providence  that  Wo- 
man, who  is  the  mere  dependant  and  ornament  of  man  in  his  happier 
hours,  should  be  his  stay  and  solace  when  smitten  with  sudden  calamity, 
winding  herself  into  the  rugged  recesses  of  his  nature,  tenderly  supporting 
the  drooping  head,  and  binding  up  the  broken  heart." 

Washington  Irving. 

In  treating  of  the  capabilities  of  these  institu- 
tions, it  will  be  necessary  to  consider  who  are 
engaged  in  carrying  on  the  work — its  peculiar 
character,  and  the  adaptation  of  means  for  its 
accomplishment. 

First,  then,  it  will  be  remembered  that  it  is 
Woman  that  has  taken  charge  of  this  department 
of  human  effort — the  mothers,  wives,  sisters 
and  daughters  have  entered  the  field,  united  and 
determined,  to  see  what  female  influence  can  ac- 
complish, in  rescuing  and  saving  from  perdition 
their  husbands  and  sons,  their  fathers  and  bro- 
thers, and  all  who  seek  pleasure  in  the  use  of  in- 
toxicating liquor.  And  are  not  such  agents  pe- 
culiarly endowed  with  capabilities  for  this  work  % 


40  MARTHA    WASHINGTON  I ANISM. 

"Oh !   Woman's  heart  is  like  the  rose, 
That  glows  beneath  the  tropic's  flame, 
Which  blooms  alike  'mid  northern  snows, 
For  ever  lovely  and  the  same. 
Whate'er  her  rank — whate'er  her  lot, 
Where'er  her  gentle  influence  ranges, 
The  art  to  bless  is  ne'er  forgot, 
The  will  te  comfort  never  changess" 

Says  a  late  writer,  "  If,  as  we  are  assured  by 
astronomers,  scores  of  new  stars  have  taken 
rank  with  the  heavenly  hosts,  during  the  last  two 
centuries  ;  stars,  brighter  than  they,  have  in  the 
same  period  kindled  up  new  lights  in  the  moral 
firmament.  Among  the  new  stars,  one,  a  little 
lower  than  that  of  Bethlehem,  has  just  appeared 
above  the  horizon.  It  is  the  star  of  Woman's  In- 
fluence. Influential  woman  is  a  being  of  scarce- 
ly two  centuries'  growth  :  up  to  that  period,  and 
almost  hitherto,  her  influence  has  fallen  upon  hu- 
man character  and  society,  like  the  feeble  rays 
of  a  rising  winter's  sun  upon  polar  fields  of  ice. 
But  her  sun  is  now  reaching  upward — there  is  a 
sacredness,  as  well  as  potency,  in  female  influ- 
ence ;  sacred,  because  of  its  power,  and  peculiar- 
ly so  when  brought  to  bear  on  proper  objects. 
And  where  is  the  true  greatness  of  woman's 
power  seen,  as  in  the  cause  of  humanity  and 
virtue  1     Martha  Washingtonian   measures   fur- 


MARTHA    WASHINGTOJSIANISM.  4<1 

nish  daily  demonstrations  that  there  are  none  so 
low  and  degraded,  but  that  woman's  influence 
can  reach  and  save  them.  We  meet  the  men 
daily  in  our  streets,  who,  amidst  all  the  exciting 
influences  and  soul-stirring  measures  of  reformed 
inebriates,  remained  unmoved;  they  had  no  de- 
sire to  leave  their  wretchedness  and  to  reform,  un- 
til approached  by  some  kind-hearted  female,  who 
took  it  upon  herself  to  care  for  them  ;  and  in  the 
silver  tones  of  female  eloquence  pleaded  with 
them  to  save  themselves.  This  had  the  effect. 
The  desire  to  live  again  was  created,  and  an  effort 
which  produced  reformation  was  made,  and  they 
are  saved  I  The  delicate  and  refined  sensibility, 
the  modesty  of  feeling  and  manner,  the  gentle 
and  unassuming  tenderness  which  a  lady-like  fe- 
male possesses  in  a  degree  with  which  the 
"  sterner  sex"  are  not  endowed,  gives  her  deci- 
dedly the  vantage-ground  over  man,  in  elevating 
the  degraded  portion  of  our  race.  This  being 
the  fact,  who  can  be  at  a  loss  respecting  "  Wo- 
man's sphere  1"  In  the  cause  of  humanity  she 
may  labor,  and  in  the  spirit  of  a  moral  heroine 
battle  with  vice  and  misery  successfully,  and 
achieve  triumphs  that  will  live  in  their  blessed 
results  when  time  shall  be  no  more,  and  at  the 
same  time  never  step  out  of  the  position  in 
which  God  has  placed  her,  never  assume  the 
4* 


42  MARTHA    WASHINGT0NIAN1SIYI. 

control  of  affairs  in  which  she  is  the  a  depend- 
ant" on  man,  to  whom  she  should  look  with  reli- 
ance,— which  indeed  gives  her  another  charm  in 
the  eyes  of  her  protector  and  friend.  Such  are 
the  individual  capabilities  of  those  who  make  up 
and  manage  the  affairs  of  Martha  Washington 
Societies. 

In  considering  the  character  of  this  work,  it 
should  be  contemplated  in  both  its  moral  and 
social  relations.  Like  the  Washingtonians,  they 
do  not  profess  to  be  religious  societies — 
they  hold  no  auxiliary  connection  with  any  of 
the  religious  institutions  of  the  day — but,  al- 
though not  missionary  societies,  they  are  a  so- 
ciety of  missionaries,  and,  in  this  capacity,  have 
from  the  beginning  felt  that  the  work  they  had  to 
perform  was  one  which  must  receive  the  sanction 
of  the  Divine  Being,  in  order  to  succeed.  In 
this  view  they  almost  uniformly  open  their  meet- 
ings by  reading  the  Scriptures  and  prayer  ;  and 
never  was  there  a  meeting  of  any  kind  where  the 
managers  have  felt  more  dependence  on  God, 
We  have  listened  to  the  prayers  offered  up  at  the 
opening  of  these  meetings.  Burthened  with  the 
condition  of  the  families  they  were  aiding,  and  of 
those  also  yet  in  the  miseries  of  intemperance, 
they  poured  out  their  souls  to  God  in  such 
earnest  supplication,  as  to  affect  the  meeting  to 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  43 

tears.  What  a  pleasing  sight  is  here  to  be  seen 
— a  company  of  ladies  are  assembled  to  pass  an 
afternoon  in  making  garments  for  the  poor,  who, 
first  of  all,  bow  before  God,  and  "  with  strong 
cries  and  tears"  implore  His  blessing  on  their 
labors.  It  is  a  sight  upon  which  He,  who  in  the 
days  of  his  flesh  "  went  about  doing  good,"  looks 
down  well  pleased.  Agreeably  with  this  view  of 
their  character,  we  find  among  the  first  resolu- 
tions passed  by  the  Martha  Washington  Societies 
the  following: — "Resolved,  that  the  thanks  of 
this  Society  be  tendered  to  the  Rev.  S.  E.  Jones, 
Financial  Secretary  of  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety, for  the  donation  of  a  Bible."  It  is  impos- 
sible for  the  ladies  to  meet  and  perform  labor, 
and  draw  plans  to  relieve  the  suffering  and  re- 
claim the  intemperate,  with  no  hope  of  any 
earthly  reward,  without  having  produced  in  them- 
selves a  more  expansive  benevolence  and  a  kind- 
lier feeling.  The  tendency  of  the  societies, 
therefore,  is  to  improve  the  moral  feeling  of 
the  members.  This  fact  alone  is  one  which 
should  lead  us  to  cherish  them  as  associations 
deserving  our  highest  regard.  The  Lady  Howard 
Society,  the  second  society  organized,  also  ob- 
tained a  Bible  by  donation,  and,  to  make  the  im- 
pression indelible  on  the  members,  that  they  were 
to  be  governed  by  its  principles,  the  first  direct- 


44  MARTHA    WASHIKGTONIANISM. 

ress  made  an  imposing  scene  of  its  reception. 
We  find  in  the  "  Crystal  Fount,"  a  temperance 
paper  published  in  this  city,  under  date  of  Sep- 
tember 21,  1842,  the  following  notice: — "Hap- 
pening along  by  the  Lady  Howard  Society,  we 
dropped  in  and  spent  as  pleasant  an  evening  as 
we  remember  to  have  enjoyed  in  a  long  time. 
When  we  entered,  Mrs.  Hawley,  the  first  direct- 
ress, was  presenting  a  Bible  which  had  been 
given  by  Mr.  Hyde,  of  the  Bible  House,  to  the 
Society — the  precious  gift  was  received  by 
Mrs.  Fearon,  one  of  the  members,  in  their  be- 
half." The  writer  says,  "  it  was  a  splendid  Bible 
and  a  neat  speech."  The  influence  of  such  a 
performance  could  have  been  none  other  than  im- 
pressive and  good. 

PRESENTATION  OF  BANNERS. 

The  presentation  of  Banners  has  always  been 
an  interesting  occasion.  We  have  sometimes 
regretted  that  so  much  money  should  otherwise 
be  appropriated  than  to  relieve  the  poor.  But 
when  it  is  considered  that  a  banner  seems  to  be 
an  indispensable  appendage  to  a  society^  particu- 
larly in  the  city,  where  societies  assemble  and 
form  processions,  and  that  the  money  raised  for 
the  purchase  of  a  banner  is  generally  obtained  for 


MARTHA    WASHI1NGT0NIAMSM.  45 

that  purpose,  when,  were  it  not  for  that,  it  might 
not  be  raised  at  all,  it  cannot  be  viewed  as  taking 
aught  from  the  funds  of  the  society  or  robbing 
the  poor  of  one  tittle.  But,  on  the  contrary,  the 
interest  that  the  banner  presentations  have  created 
beyond  what  it  would  have  been,  were  it  not  for 
these  imposing  ceremonies,  it  is  believed  the 
funds  of  the  societies  have  been  increased  by 
them. 

The  first  Banner  presented  by  the  ladies  was 
given  by  the  Martha  Washington  Society  to  the 
young  men,  "  The  Junior  Washington  Society." 
The  Banner  was  neatly  got  up,  containing  the 
portrait  of  Washington,  under  which  is  the  fol- 
lowing motto  : — "  Let  the  rising  generation  be  a 
temperate  one."  The  ceremony  was  performed 
in  the  Washington  Temperance  Hall,  which  was 
at  an  early  hour  crowded  to  excess.  A  commit- 
tee of  ladies  were  appointed  to  present  the  Ban- 
ner to  the  president  of  the  young  men,  of  whom 
Miss  Ann  M.  Waldron,  secretary  of  the  society, 
was  chairman,  and  made  the  speech,  which  was 
commenced  as  follows : — 
"Mr.  President, — 

"  The  ladies  of  the  Martha  Washington  Tem- 
perance Society  having  beheld  with  pleasure  the 
formation  of  the  society  over  which  you  have 
the  honor  to  preside,  were  desirous  of  giving  you 


46  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

some  substantial  evidence  of  the  deep  interest 
they  feel  in  the  success  of  your  association — an 
association  yet  in  its  infancy,  but  which  is  des- 
tined, as  they  fondly  hope,  soon  to  make  itself 
known  and  appreciated,  not  less  by  the  respecta- 
bility of  its  numbers,  than  by  the  high  moral 
worth  of  its  members.  In  furtherance  of  this  ob- 
ject, sir,  the  society  resolved  to  present  you  with 
a  Banner,  under  which  your  swelling  numbers 
might  be  hereafter  marshalled." 

This  was  replied  to  by  Mr.  Aikeman,  presi- 
dent of  the  society,  in  a  neat  and  appropriate 
manner.  Were  it  not  for  swelling  this  little  vol- 
ume beyond  its  prescribed  limits,  we  should  be 
most  happy  to  give  both  of  those  addresses  en- 
tire— as  they  were  full  of  pathos  and  enthusiasm. 

THE  FIREMEN  OF  NEW  YORK. 

While  considering  this  subject,  it  should  not  go 
unnoticed,  that  the  great  reform  which  is  going 
on  among  the  fire  companies  in  all  our  cities  and 
large  towns,  received  its  first  impulse,  as  we 
believe,  in  the  presentation  of  a  Banner.  Some 
of  the  members  of  fire  engine  company  No.  18, 
having  signed  the  total  abstinence  pledge  at  the 
Howard  temperance  meetings,  it  was  proposed  to 
them  by  some  members  of  the  Lady  Howard 
society,  that  if  all  the  company  would  come  for- 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  47 

ward  and  enrol  their  names  as  members,  the  ladies 
would  present  them  a  beautiful  Temperance  Ban- 
ner.    The  offer  was  taken  into  consideration  by 
the  company,  and  when  they  were  agreed  to  come 
en  masse  they  gave  the  society  notice.     The  eve- 
ning was  appointed,  and  seats  reserved  for  them. 
We  were  present  to  witness  their  entrance,  all  in 
firemen's  uniform,  led  on  by  their  foreman,  and 
saw  every  member   of  the  company   attach  his 
name  to  the  temperance  pledge.     No  time  was 
lost  on  the  part  of  the  ladies  in  redeeming  their 
pledge.     The  Banner  was  procured — the  device 
was  strikingly  appropriate  and  beautifully  painted 
— the  time  and  place  for  its  presentation  was  ap- 
pointed.    A  large  church  was  procured,  and  a 
platform  erected  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  sufficiently 
large  to  accommodate  the  firemen  on  one  side, 
and  the  Ladies'  Society  on  the  other,  when  among 
other  exercises  the  presentation  of  the  Banner 
took  place  before  a  crowded  audience.     It  was 
performed,   on  the  part  of  the  ladies,   by   their 
secretary,  Miss  Mary  A.  Downing,  and  received 
by%the  foreman  of  the  company.     In  the   course 
of  her  address  Miss  Downing  remarked,  "If  any 
one  class  of  citizens  more  than  another  should  be 
temperate,  it  is  the  firemen,  as  it  is  to  them  we 
look  for  the  protection  of  our  property  and  our 
lives.     When  the  sable  curtain  of  night  is  drawn 


48  MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM. 

around  us,  and  we  are  quietly  reposing  on  our 
pillow,  who  is  it  that  is  first  to  hear  the  sound  of 
yonder  c  alarm  bell,'  as  it  tolls  off  the  burning 
district  %     Is  it  not  the  fireman  1     Who  is  first 
awake   to  the  shrill  cry  of  the  watchman,  as  he 
breaks  the  stillness  of  night,  when  the  call   is 
made  upon  our  fellow  citizens  to  turn  out,  for  fire 
is  raging  in  the  city  1     Who,  we  ask,  is  the  first 
seen  in  the  streets  1  Is  it  not  the  fireman  1  When 
that  building  is  wrapt  in  flames,  who  is  first  to 
hazard  his  life  to  save  the  inmates  from  the  most 
distressing  of  all  deaths  %     It  is  the  fireman.     If 
such  then  be  your  worth  ;  if  such  your  praise- 
worthy acts;  if  such  your  danger,  should  you 
not    be    temperate   men  %      Then  go  forth  in  a 
mighty  phalanx — go  forth  and  rear  the  standard 
of  temperance — show  to  your  fellow  firemen  that 
you  can  brave  the  severest  storm  of  winter  or 
bask  in  the  sultry  heat  of  summer  without  the 
use  of  intoxicating  drinks.     And  now,  members 
of  Union  Company  No.  18,  as  a  token  of  our  re- 
spect and  approbation  of  your  course,  we,  the 
members  of  the  Lady  Howard  Temperance  So- 
ciety, present  you  with  the  first  Fireman's  Banner 
that  was  ever  unfurled  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
May  it  long  wave  in  triumph  over  your  heads,  and 
may  Heaven  forbid  that  you  should  ever   prove 
recreant  to  the  high  trust  we  have  reposed  in 


MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM.  49 

you."  On  receiving  the  Banner,  the  foreman 
made  a  reply  in  behalf  of  the  company.  There 
was  a  deep  moral  feeling  which  pervaded  the 
audience.  The  old  men  wept,  and  the  young 
listened  with  seriousness.  It  was  indeed  a  scene 
on  which  the  philanthropist  could  look  with  feel- 
ings of  gratitude  and  joy,  and  which  shadowed 
forth  to  the  Christian's  mind  omens  of  future 
good. 

A  writer  for  the  Olive  Plant,  in  a  notice  of 
this  scene,  says,  "  there  shone  forth  a  feeling 
of  enthusiasm  that  reminded  us  of  the  days  of 
romance  and  chivalry,  when  high-born  dames 
were  wont  to  bestow  such  honors  on  the  daunt- 
less champions,  who  had  most  nobly  and  suc- 
cessfully encountered  their  enemies  and  defend- 
ed their  rights."  That  first  Fireman's  Banner  in 
New  York,  or  any  other  city  for  aught  we 
know,  has  waved  in  honored  triumph  ever  since. 
Nor  has  it  waved  alone  !  Fire  companies  have 
since  come  in  such  numbers  to  the  Temperance 
standard,  and  in  a  body  signed  the  pledge,  that 
its  novelty  has  passed  away.  It  can  hardly  be 
imagined  how  much  total  abstinence  has  im- 
proved the  deportment  of  the  firemen,  not  only 
at  fires,  but  also  at  their  engine-house  meetings. 
The  mother  who  used  to  mourn  over  the  mid- 
night revelries  of  her  son,  now  finds  him,  al- 
5 


50  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

though  still  a  member  of  a  fire  company,  at 
home,  or  at  some  useful  meeting.  The  number 
of  fire  companies  who  are  not  now  practising 
total  abstinence  is  quite  in  the  minority.  Nor 
is  the  time  far  distant  when  a  fire  company 
which  indulges  in  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors 
will  be  unknown  in  New  York  or  any  other  city 
of  the  Union.  How  much  the  presentation  of 
the  banner  to  fire  company  No.  18,  has  done  in 
giving  an  impulse  and  an  example  which  has 
been  followed  by  so  many  others  in  New  York 
and  other  cities,  we  leave  others  to  decide, 

CONCERTS. 

Concerts  have  been  useful.  They  have  brought 
the  power  of  music  to  serve  a  useful  purpose 
— they  have  produced  a  demand  for  music, 
which  has,  in  turn,  greatly  improved  its  charac- 
ter, at  least,  as  employed  among  the  Washing- 
tonians.  The  Ladies'  Societies  of  New  York 
embrace  as  fine  musical  talent  as  can  ordinarily 
be  found.  They  have  also  been  pecuniarily  pro- 
ductive. 

Pic-JVic  and  Tea  Parties,  and  excursions,  as 
managed  by  the  Ladies'  and  Gentlemen's  So- 
cieties united,  going  by  steam-boats  to  some 
place  adjacent  to  the  city,  have  had  their  social 
benefits.     On  these  occasions,   remote  Societies 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  51 

have  met  and  greeted  and  cheered  each  other  on 
in  their  self-denying,  yet  life-sustaining  course. 
Such  an  air  of  cheerfulness,  of  innocent  enjoy- 
ment, pervades  the  scene,  that  what  the  inebriate 
feared  he  might  lose  in  leaving  his  cups,  he  has 
found  in  a  far  higher  and  more  refined  enjoy- 
ment. The  social  character,  then,  of  these 
institutions,  growing  out  of  the  means  employed 
to  restore  a  lost  race  to  the  position  of  husbands, 
brothers,  fathers  and  good  citizens,  forms  a  con- 
trolling power  which  ladies  wield  with  great 
effect. 

Thus,  a  train  of  means  has  been  put  in  ope- 
ration, the  certain  results  of  which  will  be  to 
lessen  vice,  dissipation,  and  human  suffering  in 
all  its  forms.  Begging  children  already  begin 
to  disappear  from  our  streets,  and  we  trust  the 
day  is  not  far  distant  when  kindness  and  good- 
will  will  become  predominant  in  the  community, 
and  when  there  shall  nothing  be  left  "  to  harm 
or  destroy  in  all  God's  holy  mountain." 

The  direct  connection  that  exists  between 
most  of  the  Ladies5  Societies  and  those  of  the 
Gentlemen,  bring  them  into  constant  contact 
with  each  other  ;  the  influence  of  which  is  de- 
cidedly good,  particularly  on  the  reformed  men. 
No  better  evidence  of  returning  self-respect  can 
be  found  in  a  reformed  inebriate  than  to  see  him 


52  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

prize  the  society  and  good-will  of  respectable 
females  $  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  the 
comparatively  small  number  of  men  who  have 
broken  their  pledge,  and  relapsed  into  their 
former  habits  in  New  York,  is  owing  mainly  to 
the  obligation  that  the  ladies  have  immediately 
laid  them  under  by  some  kind  favor  they  had 
occasion  to  do  them.  The  interest  manifested 
by  those  whose  society  the  drunkard  had  for- 
saken for  his  cups,  takes  them  by  surprise.  They 
are  awakened  into  life  by  their  cheerful  coun- 
tenances,— by  the  music  of  their  voices  as  they 
"  sing  the  praise  of  water,"  and  by  the  mani- 
festation of  kind  feelings,  all  coming  from  those 
whose  respect,  more  than  all  others,  they  had 
forfeited. 

There  is  a  happy  adaptation  in  the  peculiar  po- 
sition which  the  Ladies'  Societies  occupy,  to  call 
out  all  the  higher  and  better  feelings  of  the  re- 
formed man's  nature,  for  in  his  integrity  and  re- 
formation they  make  proffers  of  confidence,  the 
moment  he  signs  the  pledge.  The  means  which 
the  ladies  have  from  time  to  time  employed,  and 
which  have  brought  their  influence  immediately 
to  bear  on  the  male  societies,  should  not  pass  un- 
noticed. The  presenting  of  banners,  bearing 
appropriate  mottoes,  and  of  signal  lanterns,  to 
fire   companies,  who,  as  such,  had    signed  the 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  53 

pledge,  and  medals  to  individuals,  who  had  in 
some  form  of  usefulness  become  distinguished, 
have  all  created  not  only  strong  social  obligations, 
but  have  extended  an  interest  far  and  wide  in  the 
community.  Two  of  the  principal  means  which 
the  ladies  have  .employed  to  accomplish  their 
merciful  designs  are  to  carry  out  a  system  of 
visiting  and  personally  investigating  the  cases  of 
those  they  would  reform,  and  in  extending  pe- 
cuniary aid  to  the  cases  that  demand  it.  The 
ordinary  method  of  raising  funds  to  carry  on 
the  work,  is  to  tax  themselves  with  the  payment 
of  a  sum  which  does  not  generally  exceed  one 
shilling  a  month.  To  sign  the  pledge  only,  no 
sum  is  required.  These  are  called  "pledged 
members,"  thousands  of  whom  in  no  other  way 
become  members  of  the  society/ 

But  those  who  become  members  in  the 
sense  required  by  the  Constitution,  aim  not  only 
to  practise  total  abstinence  themselves,  but 
also,  to  labor  for  the  good  of  others.  Such 
are  called  "  constitutional  members."  These 
members  meet  on  a  given  day  of  each  week,  to 
make  and  repair  garments,  and  to  devise  the  best 
plans  for  their  appropriation.  Visiting  commit- 
tees are  therefore  appointed,  whose  labors  can 
be  made  exceedingly  useful  by  personal  conver- 
sation and  appropriating  the  means  of  relief.  A 
5* 


54?  MARTHA  WAfiHUf GTONIA^  1 8M . 

lasting  impression  is  made  by  these  almoners,  for 
good  or  for  evil,  according  to  the  spirit  in  which 
they  do  their  work. 


PERMANENCE  OF  THE  SOCIETIES. 

The  societies,  thus  far,  have  received  no  large 
donations — they  have,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  dollars  which  some  of  the  societies  may  have 
in  their  treasury,  no  unappropriated  funds  ;  and 
the  regular  channels  for  receiving  them  by  mem- 
bership, &c,  but  little  more  than  meet  the  con- 
tingent expenses,  such  as  paying  for  rent,  fire,  &c. 
Other  methods  are  resorted  to  for  raising  funds  > 
such  as  "  concerts,"  "  temperance  entertain- 
ments," "fairs,"  &c. ;  to  all  of  which,  a  fee  of  ad- 
mission is  required — and  in  most  cases  they  have 
been  so  liberally  patronized  as  to  be  productive. 
But  when  the  public  see  in  these  societies, 
their  happy  adaptation  of  usefulness  to  the  great 
mass,  and  especially  to  that  class  of  the  poor, 
who  have  hitherto  been  regarded  as  not  the  pro- 
per objects  of  pecuniary  aid — an  adaptation  which 
is  not  found  in  many  other  benevolent  Institu- 
tions— we  have  no  doubt  they  will  be  more 
highly  appreciated,  and  will  yet  receive  dona- 
tions of  a  more  liberal  and  extended  character,  by 
which  they  will  be  enabled  to  take  a  more  per- 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  55 

manent  form,  and  conduct  their  measures  more 
efficiently  than  ever  before.  And  for  this  pur- 
pose we  should  advise  some  one  or  more  of  the 
societies  of  this  city  to  become  incorporated  and 
provide  themselves  with  the  proper  qualifications 
for  holding  property.  Funds  will  then,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  come  to  hand. 

If  appeals  can  be  made  to  the  ladies  with  suc- 
cess, for  promoting  objects  relating  only  to  patri- 
otic deeds — if  the  women  of  New  England  could 
be  roused  to  the  work  of  raising  funds  to  com- 
plete the  Bunker  Hill  Monument — we  think  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that,  when  the  importance  of 
funds  to  the  success  of  female  temperance  bene- 
volent Societies  comes  fairly  before  the  Ladies 
of  New  York,  they  will  be  willing  to  institute 
and  sustain  measures  that  will  build  a  monument 
to  the  memory  and  permanence  of  Martha 
Washingtonianism,  that  will  be  more  useful  to 
the  cause  of  humanity,  and  honorable  to  them- 
selves, than  if  they  were  to  build  a  monument  to 
the  memory  of  every  battle  won  by  carnage  and 
death  in  American  history. 

We  venture  the  opinion  that  these  institutions 
are  destined  to  illustrate  the  principle  of  adapta- 
tion, which  must  renovate  all  our  moral  and  be- 
nevolent Societies  before  the  great  reform  the 
world  needs  shall  be  consummated.    It  is  our 


56  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

ardent  hope,  therefore,  that  the  Martha  Washing 
ton  Societies  which  have  sprung  up  within  the 
last  two  years,  may  continue  in  their  works 
of  faith  and  labors  of  love  —  nor  cease  their 
efforts  so  long  as  they  can  inculcate  compassion 
for  the  unfortunate,  or  employ  means  for  reviving 
hope  in  the  despairing,  and  in  lessening  the  tears 
of  suffering  humanity. 

"  Oh  !  Thou  who  poured  the  pitying  tide 

That  flows  through  woman's  gentle  breast, 
And  streams  of  tenderness  supplied 

To  aid  and  comfort  the  distressed, 
Making,  in  all  life's  scenes  of  ill, 
Woman  a  guardian  angel  still, — 
Against  our  nation's  deadliest  sin 

Bid  female  purity  unite  ; 
Aid  us,  oh  Lord !  our  cause  to  win, 

By  firm  example's  steadfast  might, 
'Till  foul  Intemperance  has  flown, 
Abashed  by  Virtue's  awful  frown. 
Rouse,  God  of  Truth !  each  lukewarm  heart, 

Give  wisdom  to  each  wav'ring  mind, 
Let  woman  bear  a  lofty  part 

In  teaching  Temperance  to  mankind — 
Seeking  with  pure  untiring  zeal 
Tne  wounds  of  sin  and  grief  to  heal." 


, 


PART   IV. 

"  I  will  that  women  adorn  themselves,  not  with  braidened  hair,  or  gold, 
or  pearls,  or  costly  array,  but  with  good  works."— St.  Paul. 

"These  (Ladies')  associations  are  doing  a  great  work  in  reforming  and 
saving  the  nation.  Never  before  has  charity  been  so  well  bestowed. — 
Rev.  John  Marsh. 

This  Part  will  be  entirely  occupied  in  present- 
ing a  view  of  the  many  societies  which  have 
sprung  up  in  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Jersey  City, 
and  Newark.  We  have  done  this  with  such  ma- 
terials as  we  could  obtain.  The  same  kind  of  ac- 
curacy looked  for  in  an  annual  report  should  not 
be  expected,  but  the  greatest  inaccuracy  that  can 
be  detected  is  on  the  side  of  an  incomplete,  in- 
stead of  an  exaggerated  statement  of  facts. 
Where  the  Secretaries  have  made  their  own  re- 
ports, no  doubt  the  statistics  are  complete,  but 
without  such  aid  we  have  been  careful  to  keep 
within  the  truth. 

We  have  no  question  that  there  are  now  more 
of  these  societies  in  New  York  than  will  be  sus- 
tained. All  that  are  herein  reported,  we  know, 
meet  weekly  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing 
their  humane  and  benevolent  designs  ;  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  they  are  all  doing  good.     But  it 


58  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

is  our  opinion  that  they  will  continue  to  do  good 
much  longer  if,  in  many  cases,  two  or  three  so- 
cieties were  to  consolidate  into  one.  This  would 
save  the  contingent  expenses  of  several  societies, 
and  the  money  thus  saved  could  be  expended  in 
giving  permanence  to  those  which  might  remain. 

For  the  better  information  of  those  who  may 
smile  over  the  names  of  these  Ladies'  Societies, 
they  should  know  that  nearly  every  Ladies'  So- 
ciety is  christened  by  the  name  of  the  Washington 
Society,  to  which  they  are  auxiliary,  for  the  gen- 
tlemen have  learned  that  where  they  have  no  la- 
dies' society  with  whom  to  co-operate,  they  but 
half  do  their  work. 

Who  that  reads  the  following  pages  can  for- 
bear to  rejoice  at  the  humane,  philanthropic  and 
benevolent  spirit  that  is  evidently  gaining  upon 
the  whole  face  of  the  community !  "  Let  us  rejoice 
in  it  and  be  glad  all  the  days  of  our  lives." 

NEW  YORK. 

1  .—THE  MAKTHA  WASHING-TON  TEMPERANCE  BENEVO- 
LENT SOCIETY. 

Organized  12th  of  May,  1841. 
Since  its  organization  nineteen  hundred  have 
signed  the  pledge,  nearly  one  half  of  whom  be- 
came constitutional  members.     The  society  have 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  59 

aided  about  seven  hundred  individuals  and  fami- 
lies. They  have  distributed  two  thousand  gar- 
ments, and  expended  $500  in  money. 

They  have  presented  two  banners,  one  to  the 
Junior  Washington  Society,  and  one  to  hose 
company  No.  33.  To  aid  their  funds  they  have 
held  musical  concerts  and  one  Pic  Nic  party,  &c. 
In  the  winter  of  184?2,  they  received  from  the 
Martha  Washington  Society  of  New  Haven  a 
box  of  seasonable  articles  of  clothing  for  distri- 
bution. By  the  hands  of  Mr.  John  Hawkins,  they 
received  from  the  Lady  Washington  Society  of 
Boston,  a  splendid  plum  cake,  weighing  fifty 
pounds,  for  the  festival  held  in  commemoration 
of  Washington's  Birth-Day,  Feb.  22d,  of  the 
same  winter.  This  cake  was  in  the  form  of  a 
castle,  elegantly  ornamented ;  from  the  battle- 
ments of  which  wrere  displayed  two  beautiful 
satin  banners,  with  suitable  inscriptions,  The 
May  following  they  returned  the  compliment  to 
the  ladies  of  Boston,  in  a  plain  cake,  weighing 
sixty  pounds,  for  their  fair. 

Mrs.  H.  McKay,  Cor.  Sec'ry. 
Miss  Ann  Gordon,  Re.c.  Sec'ry. 

2.— THE  LADY  HOWARD  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  June  13th,  184>1. 
Ten  hundred  and  twenty-five  have  signed  their 


60  MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM. 

pledge,  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  of  whom 
have  become  constitutional  members. 

At  their  first  annual  meeting,  this  society  re- 
ported, among  other  facts,  that  about  one  hun- 
dred intemperate  women  had  signed  the  pledge  of 
total  abstinence,  and  had  reformed  under  their 
auspices.  They  have  presented  two  banners — 
one  to  the  Howard  Society,  the  other  to  fire 
company  No.  18.  They  have  also  presented  a 
number  of  medals  to  the  pioneers  of  the  Wash" 
ingtonian  reform  in  New  York  ;  and  also  a  medal 
to  one  of  their  own  managers — herself  a  reformed 
woman,  who  has  risen  up,  under  the  good  in- 
fluence of  the  society,  to  respectability  and  use- 
fulness in  the  cause.  This  woman's  case  fur- 
nishes a  living  demonstration  that,  under  the 
life-giving  influence  of  kind  attentions  from  her 
own  sex,  intemperate  females  as  well  as  men  can 
be  restored  to  themselves,  to  their  families,  to 
society,  and  to  happiness.  The  number  of  gar- 
ments, and  amount  of  money  distributed,  not  re- 
ported. In  a  late  communication  to  the  "  Olive 
Plant,"  the  secretary  says  : — "  We  have  been 
surprised  at  the  rapid  progress  temperance  has 
made  amongst  us  ;  but  we  are  much  more  sur- 
prised that  any  lady,  possessed  of  one  spark  of 
sympathy  for  suffering  humanity,  can  stand  as  an 
idle  spectator  in  this  work." 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  61 

3.— LADY  MANHATTAN  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  Sept,  1st,  1841 . 

One  hundred  and  eighty-four  have  signed  their 
pledge,  one  hundred  and  nineteen  of  whom  are 
constitutional  members.  This  society  has  been 
diligent  from  the  beginning.  They  have  distri- 
buted about  five  hundred  different  kinds  of  bed 
clothes  and  wearing  apparel,  besides  contributing 
other  timely  necessaries  for  those  they  have  la- 
bored to  save. 

A  banner,  costing  $85  00,  was  presented  on 
the  13th  of  July,  to  the  gentlemen's  Manhattan 
Society,  all  of  which  was  paid  for  by  donations 
made  for  that  purpose.  They  have  recently  had 
a  fair  to  aid  their  funds,  which  was  well  patroniz- 
ed and  made  productive. 

4.— THE  LADY  MOUNT  PITT  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized   October  23d,  1841. 

About  four  hundred  have  signed  their  pledge, 
a  portion  of  whom  are  constitutional  members. 

On  the  24th  of  March,  1842,  they  presented  to 
hose  company  No.  15  a  beautiful  banner.  They 
have  given  Pic  Nic  and  other  entertainments,  and 
have  rendered  themselves  quite  useful  in  making 
and  distributing  garments  among  the  families  of 
reformed  inebriates,  and  in  aiding  the  male  so- 
ciety, to  which  they  are  auxiliary.  They  re- 
6 


62  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM 

ceived  fifty  dollars  in  one  donation,  to  carry  on 
their  benevolent  purposes. 

5.— LADY  CLINTON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  Jan.  8, 1842. 

Rising  three  hundred  and  fifty  have  signed 
their  pledge,  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  whom 
are  constitutional  members. 

This  society  have  presented  banners,  given 
concerts,  and  in  numerous  ways  brought  their  in- 
fluence to  bear  effectually  in  the  great  cause  of 
humanity.  Composed  of  excellent  members, 
they  will  let  no  occasion  pass  unimproved,  in 
reforming  and  improving  the  characters  and 
condition  of  all  who  come  within  the  sphere  of 
their  influence.  In  a  report  made  some  months 
since,  the  secretary  says  : 

"  The  object  of  this  society  being,  to  aid  in  re- 
lieving the  destitution  of  the  reformed  inebriates, 
meetings  have  been  held  for  that  purpose.  A 
number  of  garments  have  been  distributed.  A 
spirit  of  deep  interest  and  unitedness  in  the  cause 
has  been  manifested  in  all  our  meetings,  which 
have  usually  been  well  attended. 

"  In  reviewing  the  rise,  progress,  and  present 
prospects  of  this  society,  we  cannot  but  take  en- 
couragement to  go  forward  with  renewed  zeal  in 
our  labors,  looking  to  Him  for  strength  and  guid- 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  63 

ance,  who  has  thus  far  crowned  our  feeble  efforts 
with  success." 

6.— LADY  WASHINGTON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  Bee,  %   1841. 

At  the  formation  of  this  Society,  there  were 
but  five  members,  and  for  some  weeks  we  were 
fearful  we  should  not  succeed  in  this  effort,  but 
by  the  blessing  of  an  all-wise  Providence,  our 
most  sanguine  expectations  have  been  more  than 
realized.  We  now  number  nine  hundred,  includ- 
ing pledged  and  constitutional  members. 

We  have  received,  during  the  year,  $275,  in- 
cluding a  donation  from  the  American  Temper- 
ance Union,  through  the  Rev.  John  Marsh,  their 
secretary,  $27  39 ;  from  Express  Hose  Co.  13, 
the  proceeds  of  a  concert,  and  the  avails  of  our 
Fair,  held  in  September,  which  was  $92.  This 
has  been  judiciously  expended  for  the  poor,  in- 
cluding the  incidental  expenses  of  the  society, 
with  the  exception  of  $70  handed  over  to  the 
Washington  Total  Abstinence  Society,  and  $16 
95  now  remaining  in  the  treasury.  We  also  have 
received  six  hundred  and  ten  articles  of  various 
kinds  of  second-hand  clothing  as  donations  ; 
about  two  hundred  and  thirty  new  garments  have 
been  cut  out  of  goods  bought  with  the  society's 
funds,  eight  hundred  and  fifty,  including  new  and 


64  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

old,  have  been  distributed  to  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  different  individuals,  who  have  been  vi- 
sited by  the  relief  committee,  and  considered 
worthy  objects  of  our  charity.  It  is  true,  we 
have  a  trifle  of  money  on  hand,  and  our  wardrobe 
is  not  entirely  empty,  but  we  have  not  sufficient 
to  carry  us  through  the  ensuing  winter.  Appli- 
cations are  numerous  and  pressing,  and  the  little 
we  now  have  will  soon  be  expended.  This  so- 
ciety has  presented  three  banners,  one  to  the 
Gentlemen's  society,  one  to  Chatham  Fire  Com- 
pany, and  one  to  Express  Hose  Company.  We 
also  held  the  first  Temperance  Fair,  which  was  a 
successful  experiment. 

FACTS. 

On  Monday  evening,  Feb.  20th,  1843,  the  so- 
ciety met,  and,  as  usual,  the  meeting  was  opened 
by  reading  the  scriptures,  and  prayer,  after  which 
a  Bible  was  presented,  through  Mr.  McKibbin, 
from  the  American  Bible  Society.  There  were 
also  present  two  intelligent  looking  females, 
Americans,  with  streaming  eyes  and  broken 
hearts,  asking  protection  for  the  night.  They 
stated  that  for  several  years  they  had  been  ad- 
dicted to  intemperance,  and  consequently  had  been 
sent  by  the  authorities  of  this  city  to  Blackwell's 
Island ;  they  had  there,  about  two  weeks  since, 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  65 

r 

at  a  temperance  meeting,  signed  the  total  absti- 
nence pledge,  and  were  determined  to  live  a  bet- 
ter life  and  drink  no  more  ;  they  also  said  they 
had  that  day  been  set  at  liberty,  and  returned  to 
the  city ;  they  had  no  home  nor  friends,  were 
tired  and  hungry,  and  could  not  think  of  return- 
ing to  their  former  associates  for  shelter.  We 
listened  to  their  tales  of  misery  and  distress  with 
grateful  hearts  to  the  Father  of  Mercies,  for  hav- 
ing given  us  a  disposition  to  alleviate  the  suffer- 
ing of  such.  We  readily  received  them  under 
our  care  ,  and  they  were  conducted  to  a  respect- 
able temperance  boarding  house,  where  they  will 
be  kindly  taken  care  of,  at  the  expense  of  the 
Society.  The  time  for  adjournment  having  ar- 
rived, the  meeting  was  closed  by  singing  the 
Doxology. 

Mrs.  G.  McKibbin,  1st  Directress, 
Miss  Lucy  Graves,  Secretary. 

7.— LADY  CHELSEA  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  Bee.  8th,  1841. 
Members    both    pledged    and    constitutional, 
about  400. 

They  have  presented  two  banners,  one  to  the 
gentlemen's  Chelsea   Society,  the  other  to  Fire 
Company,  No.  48. 
Like  the  other  societies,  they  have  distributed 
6* 


66  MARTHA    WASHINttTONIAMSM. 

both  money  and  clothing.  The  amount  we  can- 
not report  accurately.  There  are  excellent  wo- 
men actively  engaged  in  this  society,  who  have 
had  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  some  deeply  inter- 
esting cases  of  reformation. 

8.— LADIES5  COLD  SPRING  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  Dec.  21st,  1841. 

Three  hundred  and  sixty-four  have  signed  their 
pledge,  one  hundred  and  fourteen  of  whom  are 
constitutional  members. 

Nearly  four  hundred  pieces  of  clothing  have 
been  given  to  the  Society,  most  of  which  have 
been  distributed.  More  than  six  months  since 
$114  had  been  expended,  and  the  Society  has 
been  at  work  since  that  time. 

In  the  month  of  February,  1842,  the  Society 
had  a  grand  concert  in  aid  of  their  funds,  at 
which  some  of  the  best  musical  talents  in  New 
York  were  employed.  Terms  of  admission,  25 
cents.  In  the  same  month,  they  presented  a 
splendid  banner  to  the  gentlemen's  society. 

In  November  last,  they  presented  a  banner  to 
the  Young  Men's  Cold  Spring  Temperance  Soci- 
ety. On  each  of  these  occasions,  large  audi- 
ences were  in  attendance,  and  the  exercises 
were  deeply  interesting. 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  67 

9.— LADY  LA  FAYETTE  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  January  25th,  1842. 

Three  hundred  and  ninety-eight  have  signed 
the  pledge,  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  of  whom 
are  constitutional  members.  Nearly  four  hun- 
dred articles  of  bedding  and  wearing  apparel  have 
been  distributed  by  their  hands,  besides  $95  34. 

This  Society  numbers  seventeen  individuals 
who  have  been  reclaimed  from  inebriety  through 
their  instrumentality.  They  have  presented  two 
banners ;  one  to  the  La  Fayette  Society,  on  the 
1st  of  February,  1842;  the  other  to  Fire  En- 
gine Company,  No.  10,  on  the  18th  of  June  fol- 
lowing. This  Society  has  been  useful,  and  is 
still  doing  good. 

10.— LADY  COLUMBIAN  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  March  1st,  1842. 
Nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  have  signed  the 
pledg'e.     We  have  no  other  particulars. 

11,— LADY  UNION  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  March  9th,  1842. 
Number  of  members,  three  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-two, ninety-six  of  whom    are    constitutional 
members.     They  have  given  out   one   hundred 
and  thirty  articles    of  clothing,   besides  other 


68  MARTHA    WASHIInGTOxNIAJNISM. 

modes  of  assistance  which  the  Society  has  ren- 
dered to  individuals  under  various  circumstances. 
To  aid  the  funds  of  the  society,  they  have  had 
one  concert  and  a  grand  temperance  gathering, 
at  which  twenty-five  couple  of  children  from  the 
City  Farms  were  exhibited,  and  took  part  in  the 
exercises.     Received  and  expended  rising  $75. 

12.— LADIES'  GOOD  SAMARITAN  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  March  16M,  1842. 

Five  hundred  and  forty-three  have  signed  the 
pledge,  eighty-six  of  whom  are  constitutional 
members.  The  Society  have  reformed  and  aided 
one  hundred  and  six  persons — have  expended  in 
money  $180  57  cents,  and  distributed  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  articles  of  various  kinds  of 
clothing.  On  the  1st  of  July  last,  they  presented 
a  Hook  and  Ladder  Company  with  a  magnificent 
banner. 

Besides  attending  to  the  wants  of  the  sick,  this 
Society  has  paid  the  funeral  expenses  of  four  de- 
ceased persons,  who  appeared  to  be  without 
friends  that  could  do  this  last  act  of  humanity. 

13.— LADIES5  HAND-IN-HAND  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 

Organized  March  1842, 
And  has  had  rising  one  hundred  and  fifty  mem- 
bers sign  the  pledge  and  constitution.     The  So- 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  69 

ciety  continue  to  meet,  and  are  useful.     Further 
particulars  not  known. 

14.— LADY  MOUNT  VERNON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 

Organized  April  1st,  1842. 

Two  hundred  and  seventy-five  have  signed 
their  pledge,  about  one  hundred  of  whom  are  con- 
stitutional members.  This  Society  have  pre- 
sented two  banners,  one  to  the  Gentleman 
Mount  Vernon  Society,  and  the  other  to  Forrest 
Fire  Engine  Company. 

They  have  been  active  and  successful.  In  a 
notice  of  the  Society,  the  First  Directress 
writes : 

"  The  nature  of  this  Society  is  so  generally 
understood  as  to  render  explanation  unnecessary. 
The  secret  of  the  great  success  which  has 
attended  our  labors,  is  the  spirit  with  which 
it  is  performed.  Instead  of  reproaching  the 
fallen  of  our  sex  with  harsh  rebukes,  we  offer 
the  friendship  and  confidence  of  our  ladies.  Af- 
ter signing  the  pledge,  they  are  visited  and  their 
immediate  wants  supplied,  as  far  as  possible,  and 
employment  secured  for  them.  Thus,  real  and 
efficient  sympathy  gives  them  a  motive  for  good 
action,  and  rarely  do  they  disappoint  us. 


70  MARTHA    WASHIx\GTONIANISM. 

15.— LADY  E.  C.  DELAVAN  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 

The  Lady  E.  C.  Delavan  T.  B.  Society  was  or- 
ganized on  the  6th  April,  1842 ;  and  immediately 
became  auxiliary  to  the  Shipwright  and  Caulkers 
Temperance  Benevolent  Society. 

We  number,  fifty-six  constitutional  and  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  pledged  members. 

We  have  held  one  public  meeting,  and  given 
two  temperance  concerts ;  and  realized  from 
them  the  sum  of  $43  78. 

Our  Treasurer  acknowledges  the  receipt  (from 
fees,  dues,  donations,  &c.)  of  $22  53.  Our  ex- 
penditures have  nearly  kept  pace  with  our  re- 
ceipts, as  the  gross  amount  expended  by  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  is  $63  29,  leaving  a  balance 
in  the  Treasury  at  the  present  date,  February  23, 
of  $2   34. 

We  have,  connected  with  our  society,  an  ex- 
cellent choir,  known  as  the  E.  C.  Delavan  Asso- 
ciation, under  the  management  of  Mr.  John  Dun- 
shee  ;  all  the  members  of  which  association  are 
identified  with  our  own,  or  the  society  to  which 
we  are  auxiliary. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Wardrobe  Committee  re- 
ports the  receipt  of  121  garments,  36  1-2  yards 
cotton  cloth,  25  1-2  yards  calico,  and  3  articles 
of  bedding.  Also  reports  the  distribution  of 
70  articles  of  wearing  apparel,  one  bedquilt,  one 


MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM.  71 

blanket  and  one  comfortable,  for  the  relief  of  the 
needy.  There  are  now  in  the  wardrobe  fifty- 
one  articles. 

It  has  been,  and  still  is  our  purpose,  to  procure 
a  banner  for  the  Shipwright  and  Caulkers  So- 
ciety ;  but  hitherto  the  funds  contributed  for  that 
object  have  fallen  far  short  of  the  necessary  sum. 
But  we  feel  assured  that  when  the  winter,  with 
its  cold  and  bitter  trials,  passes  away,  our  active 
ladies  will  be  able  to  raise  the  necessary  funds 
for  that  purpose.  The  treasurer  of  the  banner 
fund  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  $6  34. 

We  have  been  permitted  to  u  rejoice  with 
trembling"  over  some  females,  who  formerly  have 
succumbed  to  an  intemperate  habit ;  but  who 
now  are  pledged  to  abstain.  We  strive  to  watch 
over  them  kindly,  and  provide  for  their  most 
pressing  necessities  ;  and  constantly  pray  that 
the  means  put  into  our  hands  may  receive  the 
blessing  of  Him,  who  is  no  respecter  of  persons, 
and  be  by  Him  sanctified  to  their  present  and  fu- 
ture welfare. 

As  regards  the  spirit  prevailing  among  us, 
we  may  say,  that  harmony  and  love  have  thus 
far  characterized  our  meetings ;  and  a  deter- 
mined zeal  has  ever  been  manifested  by  all,  to 
do  what  lay  within  the  compass  of  their  ability  to 
put  down  intemperance. 


72  MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM. 

In  concluding  our  report  for  your  little  manual, 
we  find  we  have  recorded  nothing  of  apparent 
importance  $  but  hoping  that  the  same  power 
which  sustains  the  minute  animalculce,  while 
heaving  up  the  coral  reef  until  it  extends  far  out 
into  the  broad  blue  sea  of  the  tropics,  will  uphold 
us,  until  our  labor,  together  with  that  of  kindred 
organizations,  shall  rear  such  rocks  and  reefs, 
everywhere  amid  the  sea  of  life,  as  shall  render 
it  impossible  for  any  of  Alcohol's  cruisers  to  na- 
vigate its  waters  safely  : 

Hoping  thus,  we  would  thankfully  take  courage 
and  humbly  record  here,  our  determination  to 
serve  at  the  altar  of  temperance  while  we  live. 
In  behalf  of  the  society. 

Almira  C.  Loveland,  Cor.  Sec'ry. 

16.— LADY  MARY  WASHINGTON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  J?pril  1th,  1842. 

About  one  hundred  and  fifty  have  signed  their 
pledge,  a  number  of  whom  are  constitutional 
members. 

They  continue  to  meet  in  Columbian  Hall  in 
Grand  street,  and  are  co-workers  with  the  so- 
ciety to  which  they  are  auxiliary.  We  have  no 
particulars. 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  73 

17,— LADIES'  MARION  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  2Stk  of  April,  1842, 

Nine  ladies  at  that  time  pledging  themselves 
"  not  to  drink  any  spirituous  or  malt  liquors, 
wine  or  cider ;  nor  on  any  occasion  provide 
them  as  articles  of  entertainment  for  friends." 

The  objects  of  this  society  are,  "by  exercising 
mercy  and  kindness  toward  the  intemperate,  to 
persuade  them  to  reform  and  sign  the  pledge  of 
total  abstinence  from  all  intoxicating  drinks  ;  and 
to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  those  who  are 
sick  and  destitute,  by  furnishing  food,  clothing, 
&c." 

PIC-NIC    SCENE. 

Their  first  appearance  before  the  public  was 
on  the  22d  of  August :  when,  accompanied  by  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Marion  T.  A.  and  delegates 
from  many  other  societies,  they  had  a  delightful 
Pic-Nic  at  Flushing. 

On  their  arrival,  they  were  received  by  the 
Washingtonian  societies  of  all  the  adjacent  villa- 
ges, and  the  Flushing  Guards  with  an  excellent 
band  of  music,  by  whom  they  were  escorted  to  a 
beautiful  grove,  where  every  arrangement  had 
been  made  for  their  reception.  The  day  was 
spent  in  listening  to  eloquent  addresses,  uniting 
in  temperance  songs,  and  partaking  of  a  plentiful 


74  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

repast  of  the  most  choice  productions  of  the 
season. 

The  number  of  persons  participating  in  the 
festivities,  was  judged  to  be  about  2,000. 

The  next  thing  of  interest  was  the  presenta- 
tion of  a  Banner  to  the  Marion  Total  Absti- 
nence Society,  Sept.  16th,  1842. 

The  Banner  was  of  splendid  pearl-colored  silk, 
nearly  six  feet  square,  trimmed  with  blue  and 
white  fringe,  with  cord  and  tassels  to  correspond. 
Value  $75. 

On  one  side  was  well  painted  a  full  length  por- 
trait of  General  Marion,  (the  scenery  in  the 
back  ground  representing  an  encampment  of  the 
American  army),  with  the  motto,  "  Our  cause  is 
righteous,  and  will  prevail."  On  the  other  side 
was  the  date  of  organization,  and  the  motto,  M  Be" 
ware  of  Moderate  Drinking.1' 

It  was  presented  in  behalf  of  the  ladies,  by 
Mrs.  Mallison,  First  Directress,  and  received  by 
Mr.  Z.  Hyde,  President  of  the  Marion  Society. 

An  ode  written  for  the  occasion  by  a  young 
lady  of  the  Society,  also  many  other  temperance 
odes  and  songs,  were  well  sung  during  the  eve- 
ning. Hoffman's  celebrated  brass  band  played 
several  national  airs.  Able  addresses  were  deli- 
vered to  a  delighted  audience. 

In  January,  1843,  the  ladies  gave  a  public  invi- 


MARTHA    WASHINGT0N1ANISM.  75 

tation  to  the  youth  under  16  years  of  age,  who 
were  willing  to  form  a  junior  society,  to  meet  at 
the  Marion  House  on  the  20th  inst.  About  forty 
lads  assembled  at  the  appointed  time,  and  were 
organized  under  the  name  of  the  "  Junior  Marion 
Temperance  Society  ;"  and  on  the  20th  of  Febru- 
ary, their  number  had  increased  to  106. 

On  the  evening  of  that  day,  a  handsome  blue 
silk  banner,  having  on  it  their  name,  date  of  or- 
ganization, and  the  motto,  "  Order  and  Punctu- 
ality," was  presented  in  behalf  of  the  ladies  by 
Miss  Hyde,  and  received  by  Mr.  Bogardus,  Pre- 
sident of  the  Juniors. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  wardrobe  com- 
mittee, three  hundred  garments  and  also  a  quantity 
of  provisions  have  been  distributed  within  the 
last  four  months. 

Many  interesting  cases  of  reformation  have 
occurred,  and  several  instances  where  whole 
families  were  destitute  of  the  necessaries  of  life, 
and  have  been  made  happy  and  comfortable 
through  the  exertions  of  this  Society. 

Three  hundred  and  ten  have  signed  the  pledge  \ 
but  only  sixty-three  of  these  have  signed  the 
Constitution,  and  contribute  to  the  funds  of  the 
Society. 

This  Society  has  given  $20  in  cash  to  the  Ma- 


76  MARTHA    WASHINGT0NIAN1SM. 

rion  Total  Abstinence  Society,  in  aid  of  the  good 
they  are  doing,  in  the  cause  of  humanity. 

Miss  Leonora  Jones,  Cor.  Sec. 
New  York,  March  1st,  1842. 

18.— LADY  WASHINGTON  PROSPECT  BENEFICIAL 
SOCIETY. 

Organized  May  bth,  1842. 

One  hundred  and  eighty-five  have  signed  their 
pledge,  one  hundred  and  five  of  whom  are  con- 
stitutional members. 

The  admission  fee  of  this  Society  is  50  cents. 
$110  in  their  treasury.  The  constitution  of  this 
Society  provides  that  $2  per  week  shall  be  paid 
to  a  member  in  case  of  sickness,  besides  provid- 
ing watchers  if  necessary,  and  $20  are  allowed 
as  funeral  expenses  for  all  deceased  members, 
and  that  the  Society  shall  attend  the  funeral. 

19.— LADY  MARSHALL  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  May  2oth,  1842. 
They   have   about    seventy-five    constitutional 
members.     In  her  last  quarterly  report,  the  Sec- 
retary writes: 

Having  been  informed  that  by  the  exertions 
of  a  very  active  member  of  the  Marshall  Society, 
a  most  degraded  inebriate  had  been  reformed  and 
restored  to  his  family,  after  an  absence  of  several 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  77 

years.  His  dying  wife  was  destitute  even  of  the 
comfort  of  a  bed  of  straw.  The  visiting  commit- 
tee was  requested  by  the  Directress  to  proceed 
immediately  to  their  house,  and  examine  their 
particular  wants.  The  committee  without  delay 
proceeded  thither,  and  after  having  explored  the 
dreary  habitation,  and  taken  the  accurate  dimen- 
sions of  their  misery,  returned  with  the  thrilling 
information,  that  they  were  indeed  destitute  of 
clothes  and  covering,  and  suffering  from  hunger 
and  cold ;  the  woman  emaciated  with  sickness4 
and  apparently  near  death.  Touched  with  the 
faithful  representation  of  their  wants,  their  sighs, 
her  sufferings,  and  her  woes ;  and  resolved  that 
she  should  not  expire  on  the  floor,  wrapped  only 
in  a  sheet ;  a  generous  and  venerable  member  of 
the  board  at  once  interposed,  redeemed  her  bed 
and  other  articles  that  were  pledged  at  a  pawn- 
broker's, and  thus  immediately  alleviated  her 
pains,  checked  the  falling  tear,  and  soothed  her 
broken  heart.  And  we  are  happy  to  report  that 
by  the  continued  care  of  the  Society,  her  health 
has  been  partially  restored  ;  her  husband  confirm- 
ed in  sobriety — and  now  a  temperance  experience 
speaker — giving  delightful  evidence  of  his  grati- 
tude, and  doing  what  he  can  to  curtail  and  pre- 
vent the  destruction  of  others. 

Harriott  Brown,  Rec.  Sec. 


78  MARTHA  WASHINGTONIANISM. 

treasurer's  REPORT  FOR  THREE  MONTHS. 
Cash  received  by  the  Treasurer,         $25  76 

20.— LADY  FRANKLIN  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  May  3(M,  1842. 

Four  hundred  and  ninety-five  have  signed  the 
pledge,  seventy  of  whom  are  constitutional 
members.  One  hundred  different  articles  of 
clothing  have  been  received  as  donations,  or 
made  by  the  society,  about  eighty  of  which  have 
been  given  out  for  purposes  of  relief. 

They  have  from  the  beginning  been  industri- 
ously engaged  in  accumulating  a  wardrobe. 
A  choir  from  among  their  own  number  sing 
at  the  meetings  of  the  Franklin  Society  and  on 
other  occasions,  to  great  admiration.  They  are 
in  this  way  contributing  to  the  interest  of  the 
meetings,  and  to  the  success  of  the  cause. 

21.— YOUNG  LADIES5  HOPE  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  June  12M,   1842. 

Forty  members  in  the  Society. 

This  Society  presented  a  temperance  flag  to 
the  National  Cadets,  who  all  became  members  of 
the  Temperance  Society. 

They  have  a  choir  connected  with  their  Socie- 
ty, who  gratify  large  audiences  with  the  music 
of  their  voices. 


MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM.  79 

22.— LADY  PHENIX  T.  B.  SOCIETY, 
Organized  June  18,  1842. 
Seventy-six  constitutional  members,  a  good  so- 
ciety. 

23.— LADY  HOPE  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  August  3,  1842. 
The  society  have  fifty  constitutional  members, 
have  raised  funds  by  a  concert,  and  are  variously 
active. 

24.— LADY  HUDSON  T.  B.  SOCIETY, 

Organized  August  19,  1842. 

A  hundred  and  twenty-five  members.     A  good 

class  of  ladies  are  engaged  in  this  society,  who 

will  do  what  they  can  to  lessen  human   suffering 

and  reform  the  intemperate. 

25.— LADY  BROADWAY  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY, 

Organized  August  19,  1842. 
About  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  members. 

SIGNAL  LANTERN    PRESENTATION. 

On  Wednesday  evening,  January  4th,  we 
dropped  into  Concert  Hall,  and  witnessed  the 
presentation  of  a  Signal  Lantern  to  Engine  Com- 
pany 36,  by  this  Society.  Before  and  after  the 
presentation  exercise,  the  audience  was  various- 
ly entertained  with  music.     But  the  Lantern  and 


80  MARTHA   WASHINGTONIANISM. 

its  presentation,  were  the  objects  of  chief  inter- 
est. Mr.  Robert  Taylor,  who  presented  it,  in 
behalf  of  the  ladies,  made  a  speech  which  was 
listened  to  with  deep  interest. — Mr.  Gulick,  who 
received  it,  compared  the  new  lantern  with  the  old 
one,  which,  he  said,  had  served  in  the  reign  of 
King  Alcohol.  The  new  one  was  neat  and  beau- 
tiful in  its  appearance,  the  old  one  ungainly- 
enough — full  of  bruises,  marks  peculiar  to  every 
thing  that  serves  that  king. 

This  society  is  now  making  preparations  for 
presenting  a  magnificent  banner  to  the  Broadway 
Temperance  Society. 

26..— LADIES'  BLOOMINGDALE  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 

Organized  October,  1842. 
Two  hundred  and  sixty-nine  have  already 
signed  the  pledge,  eighty-six  of  whom  are  con- 
stitutional members,  and  two  life  members. 
70  articles  of  clothing  have  been  distributed,  and 
rising  $40  for  purposes  of  relief.  A  spirited 
society. 

27.— LADY  E.  L.  SNOW  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  JVov.  10,  1842. 
A  hundred  and  twenty  have  signed  their  pledge, 
thirty-four  of  whom  are  constitutional  members. 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  81 

This  society,  though  young,  have  had  some  very 
interesting  public  meetings,  at  one  of  which  the 
children  from  the  Farms  recited  and  sang  pieces, 
to  the  gratification  of  a  large  audience. 

28.— LADY  FRIENDSHIP  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 

Organized  Nov.  14,  184*2.  About  fifty  have 
signed  their  pledge. 

29.— YOUNG  LADIES'  NORTH  RIVER  UNION  T.  B. 
SOCIETY. 

Organized  Dec.  1,  1842.  Twenty-four  consti- 
tutional members. 

30.— LADY  HAMILTON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 

Organized  Dec.  3,  1842. 

Rave  about  fifty  members  in  society.  They 
meet  at  a  hall  in  27th  street,  and  promise  useful- 
ness in  the  neighborhood  of  their  location. 

31.— LADY  MITCHELL  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 

Organized  Dec.  1th,  1842. 

Eighty  have  signed  their  pledge,  about  thirty 
of  whom  are  constitutional  members,  and  are 
doing  well. 


V 


:•  7   r    -•;  ;n~" 
_.    IMS 

ire  already  united  with 

j:-.fi  i:._  i:::t-;  ;     -.Lf:: 


.1.::  i: 


ill  ::::.:-:  f  : :  :  i  f : : 
.:    -.if    :-.se  ;:'   i"- 


HBSQX  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 


.:ej  live 


lCKSCKT  t.  jl  society. 

7:.fy      :;  = 


. 


MARTHA    \VASHI>  _  SM.  S3 

36.— LADY  MARGARET  WALLACE  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized    I  7.     1843.     Up  wards   of 

forty  constitutional  mem b 

37._JUVE.VILE  FEMALE  MT.   VERNON  SOCIETY. 
Organized  February  '21th,  1843. 

And  are  auxiliary  to  the  Lady  Mount  Vernon 
T.   B.   Society.     They  are  composed   of  misses 

under  the  age  of  sixteen. 

35.— YOUNG  LADIES'  LYCURGIAX  T.    B.  SOCIETY 
Is  the    name  of  a  little  association  of  mil 

who  meet  weekly  at  the  house  of  a  merchant  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  city,  for  the  purpose  of 
making  and  collecting  clot  nine  for  the  families 
of  reformed  inebriates.  They  have  recently  be- 
come tributary  to  the  wardrobe  of  the  Martha 
Washington  Society. 

39.— YOUNG  MISSES'  COLD  SPRING  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 

A  society  recently  organized.     The  number  of 

members  unknown. 

40.  YOUNG  LADIES'  BAND  IX  HAXD  T.  B.  SOCIETY 
Organ  :  ".  1863. 

About  twenty  constitutional  members.  They 
have  already  announced  a  grand  concert  in  aid  of 
their  funds. 


84  MARTHA   WASHlKGTOHIANIflK. 

BROOKLYN,    N,  J. 

MARTHA  WASHINGTON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  16tfi  December,  1843. 
At  present  there  are  one  hundred  constitu- 
tional and  three  hundred  and  fifty  pledged 
members.  About  seventy  individuals  have  been 
assisted  by  the  society,  among  whom  there  are 
many  hopeful  cases  of  reform e&  female  inebriates. 
Many  children  from  these  families  have  been 
brought  into  the  sabbath  schools. 

A  banner  has  been  presented  to  the  Eagle  Fire 
Company  of  this  city,  and  nearly  four  hundred 
dollars  have  been  expended  in  supplying  the 
wants  of  the  destitute  under  our  care. 

Catharine  O.  March,  Sec'ry. 

FIFTH  WARD   MARTHA  WASHINGTON   SOCIETY. 
Organized  May  23d,  1842. 
Twenty-three  members.     They  meet  weekly, 
and  are  doing  good  in  the  neighborhood  of  their 
location. 

YOUNG  LADY  MOUNT  VERNON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  August  13th,  1842. 
About  forty  constitutional  members.  On  the 
6th  of  February  they  presented  the  "  Nassau 
Guards"  of  Brooklyn  with  an  exquisitely  beauti- 
ful stand  of  colors.  They  have  also  had  a  fair, 
to  aid  their  funds. 


J 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  85 

JERSEY    CITY,    NEW  JERSEY. 

LADY  WASHINGTON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  October  11,   184<2. 

Since  its  organization,  175  have  become  con- 
stitutional members,  and  135  have  signed  the 
pledge  only.  The  last  reports  of  the  committee 
are  not  brought  forward,  or  probably  the  aggre- 
gate would  be  350. 

The  society  have  expended  54  dollars,  of  which 
$50  50  has  been  distributed  in  alms,  and  have  now 
$37  remaining  in  the  treasury.  They  have  dis= 
tributed  315  garments,  and  have  now  260  remain- 
ing in  the  wardrobe,  making  the  aggregate  of 
money  and  clothing,  owned  and  distributed, 
$101  50,  and  575  garments. 

The  ladies  have  not  the  honor  to  report  a  dis- 
tribution of  banners,  badges,  signal  lanterns  or 
medals.  Their  society,  though  cheered  by  all 
that  is  encouraging  in  prospect,  is  yet  but  in  the 
dawn  of  its  existence,  having  been  organized 
hardly  five  months. 

J.  Jordan  and  A.  Fleming,  Directresses. 

E  Scott  and  E.  M.  Chaffer,  Secretaries. 


86  MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM. 

NEWARK,  N.  J. 
MARTHA  WASHINGTON  TEMPERANCE  UNION. 
Organized  Aug.  4/A,  1841. 
Its  pledge  is,  "  not  to  use  as  a  beverage  intoxi- 
cating drinks,  or  to  countenance  their  use  as  ar- 
ticles of  entertainment." 

It  has  enrolled  the  names  of  more  than  one 
thousand  and  seventy  females,  among  whom  are 
the  wives  of  seventeen  ministers  of  the  gospel,  of 
different  denominations  ;  and  hundreds  of  all 
classes  in  society.  They  have  stated  monthly 
meetings  for  sewing. 

It  has  completed  and  distributed  309  garments. 
"       repaired  239 

"        received  into  its  treasury  $139. 
Mrs.  Smith  Burnet,  First  Directress. 
Mrs.  Dr.  L.  A.  Smith,  Secretary. 
Newark,  Feb.  24,  1843. 

JUNIOR  MARTHA  WASHINGTON  T.  B.  SOCIETY. 
Organized  August  18tk,  1841. 
This   Society  have,  since   their   organization, 
distributed  nearly  six  hundred  articles  of  cloth- 
ing, besides  expending  some    money  for  provi- 
sions, &c. 

FACTS. 

They  have  taken,  in  one  instance,  an  inebriate 
man  under  their  care,  who  was  supposed  to  be 
far   gone   with   consumption,   and   procured  for 


MARTHA    WASHINGTONIANISM.  87 

him  medical  aid  and  other  assistance.  He  is 
now  restored  to  health,  and  is  an  industrious  and 
sober  man.  Also  a  girl,  thirteen  years  of  age, 
who,  through  the  neglect  of  her  parents,  had  for 
nearly  ten  years  of  her  life  been  the  prey  of  a 
disease  which  had  made  her  an  invalid,  and  an 
object  of  disgust.  Under  the  kind  treatment  of 
these  friends  and  the  medical  aid  they  procured, 
she  is  in  a  fair  way  of  recovery. 

RELIEF  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY. 
Organized  Dec.  21th,  1842. 
Thirty-two     constitutional    members.      They 
have  already  held  a  fair  to  aid  their  funds. 


COLD   WATER    ODE. — BY   REV.    JOHN    PIERPONT. 

1  Shall  e'er  cold  water  be  forgot 

When  we  sit  down  to  dine  ? 
Oh  no,  my  friends,  for  is  it  not 

Poured  out  by  hands  divine  ? 

Poured  out  by  hands  divine,  my  friends, 

Poured  out  by  hands  divine  ; 
From  springs  and  wells  it  gushes  forth, 

Poured  out  by  hands  divine. 

2  To  beauty's  cheek,  tho'  strange  it  seems, 

'Tis  not  more  strange  than  true, 
Cold  water,  though  itself  so  pale, 

Imparts  the  rosiest  hue  ; 

Imparts  the  rosiest  hue,  my  friends, 

Imparts  the  rosiest  hue ; 
Yes,  beauty  in  a  water  pail 

Doth  find  the  rosiest  hue. 


88  MARTHA    WASKINGTONIANISM. 

3  Cold  water,  too,  (tho'  wonderful, 

'Tis  not  less  true  again,) 
The  weakest  of  all  earthly  drinks, 

Doth  make  the  strongest  men ; 

Doth  make  the  strongest  men,  my  friends, 

Doth  make  the  strongest  men  ; 
Then  let  us  drink  that  weakest  drink, 

And  grow  the  strongest  men. 

4  I've  seen  the  bells  of  tulips  fair, 

Drink  up  the  drops  that  fell 
From  summer  clouds — then  why  should  not 

The  two  lips  of  a  belle  ? 

The  two  lips  of  a  belle,  my  friends, 

The  two  lips  of  a  belle  ? 
What  sweetens  more  than  water  pure 

The  two  lips  of  a  belle  ? 

5  The  sturdy  oak  full  many  a  cup 

Doth  hold  up  to  the  sky, 
To  catch  the  rain  ;  then  drinks  it  up, 

And  thus  the  oak  gets  high; 

'Tis  thus  the  oak  gets  high,  my  friends, 

'Tis  thus  the  oak  gets  high ; 
By  having  water  in  its  cups, 

Then  why  not  you  and  I  ? 

6  Then  let  cold  water  armies  give 

Their  Banners  to  the  air, 
So  shall  the  boys  like  oaks  be  strong, 

The  girls  like  tulips  fair ; 

The  girls  like  tulips  fair,  my  friends, 

The  girls  like  tulips  fair, 
The  boys  shall  grow  like  sturdy  oaks, 

The  girls  like  tulips  fair. 


SAXTON  &  MILES, 

CHEAP    CASH     BOOKSELLERS, 

205  BROADWAY, 

Hit  ^©miKs 

PUBLISH   THE   FOLLOWING   VALUABLE   WORKS. 


(THIRD   EDITION). 

A  collection  of  Original  Song?,  adapted  to  familiar  airs,  and  arranged 
to  be  sung  either  as  solos  or  chorussee. 

Designed  for  the  use  of  Washington  Temperance  Societies. 
BY  JAMES  H.  AIRMAN. 
The  publishers  would  respectfully  ask  the  attention  of  every  friend  of 
the  great  cause  of  Temperance,  to  the  following  notices  of  this  popular 
work. 

From  the  President  of  the  Franklin  Temperance  Society. 

New  York,  Dec.  2, 1842. 
Messrs.  Saxton  &  Miles  : 

Gentlemen— I  consider  the  Washingtonian  Harp,  (just  published  by 
you),  well  calculated  to  aid  in  the  promotion  of  the  good  and  great  cause 
of  temperance,  and  therefore  hope  that  it  may  meet  with  (what  in  my 
estimation  it  richly  deserves)  an  extensive  circulation. 

Yours  truly,  JAMES  HARPER, 

President  of  Franklin  Temperance  Society. 

From  J.  Covert,  Esq. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Aikman : 

Dear  Sir — I  have  examined  the  music  and  poetiy  of  the  Washingto- 
nian Harp  critically,  and  am  prepared  to  recommend  it  to  the  favorable 
notice  of  the  Washingtonian  Societies  throughout  the  city  and  country, 
as  a  work  calculated  to  aid  the  cause  of  temperance. 

1  am,  dear  sir,  yours,  J.  COVERT. 

From  the  Commercial  Advertiser  of  Nov.  30. 

We  can  commend  this  little  collection  of  temperance  songs  without  the 
qualification  we  have  had  to  append,  to  some  oilier  temperance  song  books; 
the  airs,  most  of  them  old  and  familiar,  are  pretty  melodies,  and  the 
words  are  free  from  that  slang  and  vulgarity  which  deface  so  many  of  the 
songs  we  have  heard  at  cold-water  meetings.  The  sonus  are  all  original, 
by  Mr.  James  H.  Aikman  ;  and  as  the  book  is  small  enough  for  carriage  in 
the  pocket,  and  cheap  enough  to  be  within  the  reach  of  almost  anybody's 
pocket,  we  recommend  the  Washingtonian  Harp  to  our  friends  of  the 
Franklin,  the  Washington,  Croton,  and  all  the  other  temperance  societies. 


THE   WASHINGTONIAN    HARP. 

From  the  Lady  Phoznix  Society. 

Sir — The  Lady  Phoenix  Society  have  requested  me  to  convey  to  you 
their  thanks  for  your  politeness  in  sending  for  their  inspection  the  "  Wash 
ingtonian  Harp."  They  desire  also  to  express  their  gratitude  as  Washing 
tonians  for  the  valuable  service  you  have  rendered  the  cause  of  tempe- 
rance by  the  production  of  the  above  work.  They  will  thank  you  to  send 
them  copies  agreeably  to  the  enclosed  order,  and  would  earnestly  recom- 
mend it  to  all  Washingtonian  Societies  as  the  best  collection  of  temperance 
music  yet  published. 

I  will  take  this  opportunity  of  saying  I  have  myself  examined  the 
Washingtonian  Harp,  and  can  recommend  it  as  a  choice  collection  of 
music,  correctly  arranged,  and  well  adapted  to  the  words.  From  so  many 
good  pieces  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  selection.  I  will  however  name  as 
specimens  that  soul-stirring  piece  of  composition,  the  Marseilles  Hymn, 
and  Webb's  beautiful  Glee,  "  Glorious  Apollo,"  each  of  which  has  been 
too  long  known  and  admired  in  the  musical  world  to  require  my  praise. 

Trusting  your  labors  will  be  duly  appreciated  by  all  Washingtonians, 
I  remain  yours,  most  respectfully, 

J.  H.  Airman,  Esq.  GEORGE  LEACH 

December  9,  1842. 

THE    VOCAL    GUIDE, 

A  FIRST  BOOK   FOR   SCHOOLS   AND    CLASSES  IN 

BY  WILLIAM  J.  EDSON 

From  the  New  York  American. 
"The  Vocal  Guide,"  etc.    It  contains  some  very  beautiful  pieces,  in 
themselves  a  sufficient  recommendation. 

From  Rev.  Francis  L.  Hawks,  D.  D. 
I  think  this  a  good  book,  and  will  well  fulfil  the  purpose  designed  by  the 
author. 

From  Col.  William  L  Stone,  Esq. 
I  entirely  concur  in  the  opinion  expressed  by  Dr.  Hawks. 

Messrs.  Saxton  &  Miles  : 

Gentlemen — As  you  requested  my  opinion  of  your'1  Vocal  Guide," 
I  will  simply  state,  after  glancing  over. it,  that  it  is  well  adapted  to  the  pre- 
sent state  of  musical  science  in  this  country,  and  much  more  thorough  in 
its  rudimental  department,  than  any  similar  work  now  in  market. 

Yours,  &c,  P.  A.  ANDREU,  Professor  of  Music. 

Opinion  of  Hon.  Benj.  F.  Butler, 
From  what  I  have  seen,  I  am  satisfied  that  Mr.  Edson  has  really  pro* 
duced  a  book  which  is  now  a  desideratum. 


J 


I 


